Lachryma Vitis, Malta’s oldest wine brand, has just had a makeover at 54 years old. The household name that was established in 1955 has been upgraded and improved. The name was the brainchild of Emmanuel Delicata and although the spelling had been originally “tweaked” for registration purposes, the definition is “tears of the vine” which is meant to represent the suffering the grapevines go through under a hot Mediterranean sun.

“Tweaking” was also the name of the game when it came to changing the label itself, in fact it was worked on for a number of years before all the parties involved were happy with the end result.

Many key components still remain, for example the classic painting of The lady created by the late Emvin Cremona and the wines old slogan “the world is fine as seen through wine”. But the colours of both the labels and the screwcaps are now coordinated and have changed to reflect today’s modern wine with its easy drinking, fruit driven style.

The wines themselves are made from grapes grown in Italy but carefully fermented at the Delicata winery, using strict quality control procedures together with the very latest in modern wine-making technology. In the press recently there has also been much talk about the advantages of screwcap closures over the more traditional cork. Well Lachryma Vitis drinkers won’t need reminding that this wine has been closed with a screwcap for well over 30 years now.

There are five styles of Lachryma Vitis wines with the new look packaging. A fruity and refreshing white, a medium dry rose, a medium bodied red, a spicy sweet marsala and a fruity full flavoured semi sweet. The wines are available in 75cl and 1-litre bottles, 50cl packs and 5-litre and 20-litre bag in box. All of the bottles are eco friendly reusable bottles, which are even distributed in reusable plastic crates. All in all a very environmentally friendly package indeed and all for around e1.20 a bottle at your local shop or supermarket.