The grape yield at Marsovin for 2019 will be some 20% less than what it was in 2018 according to early indications from within the vineyards, but Marsovin CEO Jeremy Cassar believes that this will still be a good year for the wine itself.
Speaking at Marsovin’s Marsini Wine Estate in Marsaxlokk, Cassar said that the past 12 months had been good in terms of rainfall, with a total of 566 mm of rain being recorded, which is important to keep the vines alive. However, he said, the weather was windier than usual which does not help the vines.
Such conditions resulted in generally good vine vigour, and a delayed bud-burst, he said.
The delay means that this year’s harvesting will be the latest ever recorded by the Marsovin Winery. One has to note that such maturity delays are not common to all varieties. Whilst early ripeners such as the Chardonnay variety have a two week harvesting delay, the mid and late ripeners such as the Cabernet Sauvignon are not as late, with an expected one week delay, the company said.
As a result of delayed grape maturation, grape varieties which are early ripeners are still expected to reach the required natural sugar levels, albeit with lower levels of acidity and aromatic profile. This means that 2019 will be all about rich and rounded whites with concentrated fruit flavours.
On the other hand late ripeners mainly in the red varieties will have to be left even longer on the vine to reach a good level of maturity, the lower temperatures, shorter days and high humidity experienced in September will slow down grape maturity even more. This means that special care will need to be taken to make sure that no fungal diseases grow.
All in all however, it is expected that there will be some 20% less grapes harvested overall when compared to last year. “Unfortunately we are in a situation where not enough grapes are being harvested to satisfy demand”, Cassar said.
The unexpected rains that hit the island at the end of May resulted in an outbreak of downey mildew especially on the indigenous varieties of grapes, with certain localities experiencing losses of over 50%.
Cassar noted that the demand for the two Maltese grape varieties – the Girgentina and Ġellewża – is growing as a result of more focus from local wineries, and because the consumer is appreciating the quality of the wine. There are still, however, shortages of these varieties, Cassar said.
He noted that the fact of the matter is that there are not enough farmers in the industry and there are not enough incentives to encourage people to go into this line of work, as more focus would continue to preserve the country’s environment.
On whether 2019 will see a good yield of wines, Cassar said that initial indications gathered from the crop brought to the winery for crushing and from pre harvest field visits show that the lower yields and the grape flavour concentration, will make this another good year, which will hopefully be on par with 2018, which is considered as one of the best years ever for Marsovin’s red wines.
Photos: Alenka Falzon