NEWS | Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Something fishy about the wine

David Darmanin
After a report on Ministerial delays in sending over Maltese wine samples to Italy for attestation featured on the 9 April edition of Business Today, The Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Affairs has denied claims made in the news feature. And yet, not only has the winery involved stuck to its guns, but the attestation body in Italy has provided a version that does not tally with the Ministry’s rebuttal.

The report mentioned that Maltese winemakers are anxiously expecting the results of wine samples submitted to government in January and that wines that were meant to be DOK certified and available in the market are off the shelves due to ministerial delays. In its replies, the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Affairs had blamed the blunder on those wineries that submitted their samples beyond deadline – to the frustration of those others that were on time.
Also, the same report mentioned that the Italian media had featured a business story about the Enoteca Italiana di Siena (EIS) – the body commissioned by Government to attest Maltese wines. This specific business story had mentioned that EIS subcontracted the Maltese attestation process to a Sicilian laboratory by the name of Istituto Regionale di Vini e Vite (IRVV). On its part, the Ministry had said that it was checking the veracity of this statement.
Rebutting the claims made on the Business Today story, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Agriculture wrote to this newspaper claiming: “With regards to the contract with the IRVV this Ministry confirms categorically that no such contract exists and that the only standing agreement is with the Enoteca di Siena for the chemical / physical and organoleptic analysis of the wine samples which the Viticulture and Oenology Unit sends.”
But when contacted by Business Today, the person in charge of DOK attestation at EIS, Alessandro Manaioli said: “We have a standing agreement with the Maltese government to attest wines. We subcontract analysis to different laboratories and that time round we gave the contract to IRVV, but the final decision is ours.”
Asked whether the claims made in the Italian media about direct liaison between IRVV and the Maltese Government were correct, Manaioli said: “What they said about direct liaison between Malta and IRVV is not true. The contract for attestation is between EIS and Malta. On the January batch we had an agreement with IRVV, but the government of Malta has no direct contact with it.”
“Your article on DOK wines,” the spokesperson for the ministry added, “carries a number of inaccuracies.
“First of all, how can DOK wines be out-of-stock when this is the first year that the certification scheme is operating? The fact is that delays have been brought about by all wineries because no one submitted the relevant documentation in time. It must be pointed out that this was to be expected since the process is still in its infancy.”
On this, a winery which fell victim of delays and out-of-stock wines said: “I cannot understand what they’re talking about. The out of stock wine awaiting certification is of the previous vintage. I know for sure that we submitted our samples on time, and according to somebody I spoke to from another winery – we weren’t the only winery to submit the samples on time… In any case, if the Ministry is now committed to take this seriously, it’s good news for us.”
Again referring to the 9 April story, the government spokesperson added: “You also fail to mention that the wineries can send samples at their own leisure and at their own expenses. Furthermore, at the time of questioning the samples had already been sent and thus it is incorrect to state that the Ministry had been prompted that the samples had not left the island.”
This newspaper can confirm that questions were sent to the Ministry on 27 March, and that according to EIS, the samples reached Italy only last Thursday, which is the day Mr Manaioli was contacted by telephone.
“The samples have arrived today,” Manaioli said. “There are Maltese wines awaiting certification because the first batch that arrived in January contained broken bottles, but we never received other samples from Malta since then.”