Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Promed, the final conference in Malta

The research and experimentation in the wine sector carried out over the last two years as part of the Promed project is coming to an end. On Monday 10 June in Malta at the Maritim Antonin Hotel & Spa in Mellieha the representatives of the Maltese Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs (MRRA), the University of Malta, Vitimalta, the Csei Catania and the Regional Institute of Wine and of Oil (IRVO) met the press and the inhabitants of Malta to illustrate the results of the Promed project and present a preview of some of the tangible tools that the partnership has produced.

“We are very proud of the work carried out – explains Lucio Monte, new director of IRVOS and scientific manager of the ProMed project –. The project allowed us to achieve very interesting scientific results. It is no coincidence that we have just returned from Bucharest where the 36th World Congress of the OIV took place on the occasion of which the Institute also presented a poster relating to the studies carried out on two native Maltese varieties - Girgentina and Gellewza - which for for the first time they have been characterized from an ampelographic point of view according to the official methodology of the OIV. What gives us great satisfaction is the certainty of arriving in Malta with a baggage full of concrete results and above all tools that can be made available to the winemakers of the small islands of the Mediterranean".

Thus, the SITs created by Csei Catania, IRVOS and the University of Malta, a manual on the sustainable management of the vineyard in the smaller Mediterranean islands, numerous experimental wines and the related winemaking protocols were officially presented for the first time.

From a viticultural and oenological point of view, much has been done in terms of enhancing both the grapes, through experimentation with new methods of managing the vineyard, illustrated in the manual, and the wines through the experimentation of new oenological protocols merged into a single document. Renovations at Buskett and the commissioning of the trial center by the MRRA were also completed. From the next harvest, the cellar will be able to be the point of reference for Maltese winemakers and aspires to be a prestigious viticultural and oenological research center for the entire Mediterranean area.