NEWS | Wednesday, 09 March 2008

Government blamed for out-of-stock wines

David Darmanin

Due to ministerial delays in sending over wine samples for certification to Italy, some Malta-made wines are currently out of stock, this newspaper has learned.
To the frustration of the winemakers submitting their samples on time, the Ministry for Rural Affairs has blamed the delay on other wineries that failed to respect the deadline for submission of samples to be sent to the Enoteca Italiana di Siena (EIS) in Italy for DOK attestation.
Meanwhile, the Italian media featured a press release informing that the Sicilian regional institute for vines and winemaking (IRVV) has been subcontracted to attest Maltese wines for EIS.
When contacted, both winemakers and The Ministry of Rural Affairs confirmed that they were kept in the dark of such developments.
“This Ministry is unaware of any agreement made by the Enoteca di Siena and the Istituto regionale vite e vino of Sicily (IRVV). Further enquires are being made with the Enoteca Italiana di Siena,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Rural affairs told this newspaper.
Asked to elaborate on the delays in the attestation of Maltese wines, she said : “The Ministry, in consultation with the Wine Regulation Board, has agreed with the wineries to organise four sample collection dates with all costs covered by the same Ministry… These (deadlines) were the first week of November, mid-December, end January and end of March. The majority of requests for white and rose wines were made in November whilst for the second date no requests have been made. The Viticulture and Oenology Unit has received the second batch of requests, after prompting by the same Unit, from mid-January well into February and this has meant that to make room even for late submissions the control process had to be lengthened.”
Once samples are received, the viticulture and oenology unit in Malta carries out a series of administrative checks and tests, and in turn, samples are sent to the EIS for analysis.
The Ministry has confirmed that the samples submitted in January will be analysed in mid-April, prompting that such samples haven’t yet left the island.
“Since the timing of the sampling actually depends on the timely submission of requests from wineries and the completeness of such submissions the Ministry will be fixing rigid deadlines based on this first year’s experience and with the advice of the Wine Regulation Board,” she added. “Any requests reaching the Viticulture and Oenology Unit beyond a particular deadline or any incomplete request not rectified by that deadline will automatically fall with the subsequent batch of requests.”
Reacting to the Ministry’s stand, a winemaker told Business Today : “That the Ministry will be learning from its mistakes is all well and good. What is unfair is that if one winery is delaying when submitting samples, another is suffering because of other people’s negligence. After all, we booked for submission of analysis in January but the Ministry kept on delaying.”