Storms arrive in Malta & Gozo.

I spoke to a neighbour yesterday about the important things going on in the village of Munxar, things like how busy the village has been with tourists this year when the rest of the island is complaining that fewer tourist have been arriving here since the world recession. The conversation then drifted on to the weather, (it's not just the British that talk about the weather you know) and she asked me if I had heard about the storms arriving tomorrow night? no says I.

Sure enough 12 hours later force 8 gales hit our shores here, the aftermath consisted of damaged cars, fallen trees, collapsed walls, boats breaking away from the moorings and crashing on the rocks.


Fortunately for us here in the farmhouse we suffered no more inconvenience than a puddle of water on the bedroom floor, a result of the horizontal rain finding it's way past the window, and a few broken plants in the garden. And now today is a beautiful warm day again. That reminds me I must fish those leaves out of the pool.

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation." Kin Hubbard

Delicata Classic Wine festival 09

I attended the wine festival in Nadur Gozo on Sunday for the first time. I purchased my glass for €10.00 picked up the festival program that told you where to find the 24 wines that Delicata were showing. Also a string of side shows were to be found, music from a variety of local artists and a wide and varied selection of food from Chinese to local rabbit.
It is not a serious wine tasting more a festival with the main theme being wine although you are at liberty to enjoy a serious wine tasting session if you should wish to.

The best wine for me was the Gran Cavalier Syrah, almost inky black in colour, with soft red fruits on the nose, medium to long spicy, vanilla finish.

I still think that an enjoyable drink from Delicata and personal summer favorite of mine, is the Rose Frizzante Gellewza (pronounced jellowza) a Maltese variety of grape. A vivid pink colour with a pleasant stream of bubbles, strawberries without being completely dry this wine is light, simple and well made and does not pretend to be anything different. A great BBQ wine for the hot summer evenings.

So what would I do if I was running this event? I would add a formal tasting (for an additional fee of course) comparing the different vintages of some of Delicata's high end wines for the wine geeks like myself.

Looking forward to the 2010 wine festival.

Strive for excellence, not perfection. H. Jackson Brown