Emmanuel Delicata Rewards Clients.

Malta wine maker Emmanuel Delicata has started it's own anniversary scheme to reward the loyalty of it's clients responsible for providing us the consumers with it's wines.
These long standing customers will be rewarded with either a bronze. silver, gold or platinum award depending on the number of years that they have been supplying Delicata wines. The award will be a certificate and a one off double magnum (equivalent to 4 bottles), the anniversary will then be celebrated at the venue along with the commemorative presentation.

The first award has gone to Tal-Familja in Marsascala at it's 13th anniversary and was honored with a gold award. The bottle contained 3 litres of Delicata Superior Syrah with anniversary label. I am not to sure if the bottles contents were drunk or it was put on display.
Congratulations to Tal-Familja.

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Aussie Wine Glut.

Australia has accumulated a surplus of 100 million cases of wine that could double over the next two years if current trends continue, according to a report. The annual wine surplus is huge and there is no clear prospect of finding additional demand, either domestic or foreign, to fill this gap.

Wine exports have fallen by 8 million cases or more than 20 percent in the last two years, with the largest declines in the high value premium wines that Aussie winemakers hoped would be their future. Inexpensive and bulk wine sales have grown, but at prices that are unsustainable.

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Delicata Hauteville Vendange Tardive

Delicata Hauteville Vendange Tardive is about to be released for the first time, in case you were wondering Vendange Tardive means that the grapes were left on the vine to partly dry and shrivel, and when the grapes are picked they have lost some of the water within the fruit, this leaves a higher concentration of fruit and sugar flavours, this in turn leads to intensified flavours in the finished wine. Just imagine a bottle of fruit squash before the water has been added and I think you get the idea. This process is often used to produce sweet or desert wines, a favorite of mine are the Alsace wines of France that have been treated in this way, but on this occasion it has been used to simply intensify the flavours to produce a more concentrated wine.


Matured in French oak barriques I read that the wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, leading to a full bodied red wine with soft mellow tannins and a long finish. Would complement red meats, game and stews, and should improve for up to 8 years if correctly stored.

I am looking forward to finding it in the shops in the near future.

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Fine Food, Fine Wine, Fine Hotel.

I achieved the landmark that is my 52nd birthday on Halloween and by way of celebration decided to stay overnight at The Palace Hotel in Sliema, Malta.


The staff were wonderful and the room and views were great and I would highly recommend it. The main reason for going was to try the TemptAsian restaurant and lounge bar situated on the 9th floor of the hotel, with fantastic Panoramic views of the Grand Harbour, all the tables offer a great view.
The restaurant offers food from China, India Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Thailand. We decided to opt for one of the set menus, this offered a selection of starters a selection of main courses and desert for the price of just €35.00 a head, given the high standard of food this offers outstanding value for money, and no we could not finish this veritable feast and believe me when I say I can put away some food.

Now the wine I decided to drink with this meal was a favorite of mine since moving to the Islands to live, Marsovin's Marnisi 2006, not an obvious choice to complement spicy food but it worked well, a more obvious choice might have been the Cassar De Malte, (methode traditionelle) that I was pleased to see on the wine list. I often feel that a good sparkling wine complements spicy food well.

The waiter that served us did not profess to be an expert on matching food and wine and when asked by me, explained what he liked to drink with the food that was being offered and I thought that this is a great way for restaurant staff to advise customers without being at all pretentious.

We had a superb meal and superb evening, a big thank you to all the staff.

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The Coolest Job.

This job puts a new spin on the saying 'like a kid in a sweet shop'. The Murphy Goode Winery in California recently pulled this publicity stunt, by word of mouth and via the Internet they let it be known that they were looking for a person to earn money by drinking the winemakers wine and talking about it on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

How's this for a job offer, Wanted for a 6 month position working around the Murphy Goode winery and to Blog, Vlog, Twitter and Facebook about your experience, salary $10,000 dollars per month, free house and all the wine you can drink with flexible working hours.

I thought I might apply but the position has already been filled by a lucky fellow called Hardy, you can follow Murphy-Goode's first Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent here.

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