Camilleri Wines acquires new wine making equipment

With just a few weeks to go before the start of the anticipated 2009 Vendemmia, Camilleri Wines has just completed the installation of newly acquired equipment at the winery in Naxxar.

The new equipment includes a closed cylinder soft press, a tube-in-tube refrigeration system, a peristaltic pump, a new packer, a gravity filler and six new wine vats of various sizes.

“Wine production is a very delicate process and grapes have to be treated with a great deal of care. The end product is highly dependent on constantly ensuring that we have the right equipment,” explains Adrian Borg, Camilleri Wines’ winemaker. “While a small part of the above equipment has been newly acquired to replace existing one, the major part of this investment was made because we felt the need to expand the processing and production activity in a way that enables us to dedicate more equipment to the production of different varieties.”

The investment has greatly improved the wine making process in a number of ways, as Mr Borg explains, “A case in point is the newly acquired closed cylinder soft press that has been installed in the winery’s grapes processing area and which will be dedicated solely to the pressing of white grapes. Being a closed press, it minimizes air contact between the grapes and air and therefore reduces ‘oxidation’. The old press will in turn be dedicated to red wines as reds require contact with air to soften harsh tannins (by process of oxidization), which are found after fermentation.”

In the case of the tube-in-tube refrigeration system, both white and red grapes will be passed into the inner tube; the outer tube carries a refrigerant that will cool the grapes by a maximum of 15 degrees before they go into the press or vats. Cold maceration will extract more aromas from the skins of the white grapes and also prevents premature fermentation. On the other hand, the new pump system works in a way that is very gentle on the grapes, on the must and on the wine being pumped through. The pump also eliminates the induction of air into the fruit. The new packer has introduced more automation in the bottling line whereas the Gravity Filler includes a purging system, which pushes all the air out of each bottle before being filled with wine thus avoiding the presence of oxygen that over time damages the wine.

Camilleri Wines general manager Louie Camilleri said, “The newly acquired machinery was an important development that Camilleri Wines needed to make in order to improve the overall product, a bold step in enhancing our direction and vision to increase our focus on quality wines.”

“Perhaps the most significant of this investment is the acquisition of six new wine vats of varying sizes not only because it will help us increase and better distribute the capacity of the wine but, more importantly, because smaller vats will allow us to experiment with new varieties and blends. It is such experimentation that has put Camilleri Wines at the forefront in the introduction of new blends and varieties in the local market. Examples are Vermentino, Viognier and Tempranillo.

“Hopefully, over the coming years, this new investment will reap further rewards for us.”