Malta Wine Tasting Team

Malta Wine Tasting Team The Malta Tasting Team represents Malta at the World Championships. www.winetastingmalta.com/team

The Farsonsdirect lineup is very special for us: it’s a sponsor who supported our adventure from the very beginning, thi...
14/09/2026

The Farsonsdirect lineup is very special for us: it’s a sponsor who supported our adventure from the very beginning, this is our 4th tasting of Farsons w**es selected by Petros Skarmoutsos and he knows exactly how to challenge us!
Riesling? Sure, Riesling we all agree, but it’s from Austria not from Australia as we thought. Sauvignon Blanc? Yes, but from South Africa, so because of the extra ripeness and alcohol we called it a Verdejo. We finally nailed the white Bordeaux (not easy!) and we missed the coinflip between Savennières and Assyrtiko. This Chenin Blanc is seriously racy! We also struggled with the very sharp Albariño and the 2025 vintage Etna Bianco which we called a Chablis. Well, as usual we did better with the reds. The Bordeaux was called correctly (although wrong appellation), we identified the Australian CabSauvignon too (but not the region) and the Chilean Carmenere was also spot on. We scored points on the exceptional Cornas as well, although we called it a Chateauneuf.

With the honorary Captain Aaron Rizzo in the house we took the opportunity of shooting some videos that Pierre Finger will release shortly 😁.
Favourite w**es of the evening (from a drinking pleasure perspective): the Savennières and the Cornas. Special mention for the Nebbiolo d’Alba of Luciano Sandrone which was so ethereal, perfumed and soft that we called it a Pinot Noir!
The team at this tasting: Manuel DegiorgioMarco TruccoMatthew DelicataRebecca DegaetanoAndrea Bomboklan and Cpt Aaron Rizzo.
Cheers and ! Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF

Nice score for the Maltese team as the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF approaches. A lineup sponsored by M&Z ...
02/09/2026

Nice score for the Maltese team as the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF approaches. A lineup sponsored by M&Z plc and selected by Marko Vucinic gave us the good vibes we need to challenge the best in the world. We started strong nailing the Loire Sauvignon Blanc and the Mosel Riesling, two “bankers” you don’t want to miss. We got Italy but we missed the Ribolla, a tough call, then unfortunately we missed a Cali Chard with unusual aromatics and a spritzy Riesling
before getting back in track with the Pinot, the Tuscan Sangiovese and the Langhe Nebbiolo. We were again on Nebbiolo for the super pretty Etna, but we called the majestic Rioja Alta Gran Reserva for what it was. Finally, obviously we missed the Douro (we always do). Overall, 145 points! Team favourite: the Giovanni Russo Etna Rosso, the spectacular Rioja and the Riesling Feinherb, a light off-dry w**e which is perfect for asian food and summer in Malta. The team at this tasting:
Manuel Degiorgio
Marco Trucco
Matthew Delicata
Rebecca Degaetano
Pierre Finger who’ll be taking on videomaking duties to report our adventures!

Back to tasting with a new lineup sponsor! Divino W**es & Spirits brought us a selection of delicious, seriously tough ...
18/08/2026

Back to tasting with a new lineup sponsor! Divino W**es & Spirits brought us a selection of delicious, seriously tough bottles to blind guess.

In a global competition such as Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF niche varietals rarely appear, so you want to call w**es that are likely to score points and avoid exotic guesses. But in training, tasting widely is useful as long as our calls make sense.

Long story short: we missed most of them, but learned a lot.

The Corpinnat had such a sharp edge that we called it Loire. The Müller-Thurgau showed a Sauvignon profile, and we called it accordingly. An intense, oaked Chenin from South Africa had all of us convinced it was Chardonnay.

Then came the moment of glory: we nailed a Muscat of Alexandria from Sicily with a wild guess and scored full points. Pats on the back.

We had the aged, oaked Alvarinho on our cards, then talked ourselves into a safer call and missed it. The Hungarian Pinot Noir… well, we got the Pinot Noir!

We’ll forgive ourselves for failing the excellent Bovale (Graciano) blend from Sardinia and the German Merlot blend. We missed one we really should have got, the Malbec, and then we redeemed ourselves with the Vinsanto from Santorini.
Final score: 65 points from 10 very challenging bottles. Plenty missed, plenty learned. That’s what training is for.
Pierre Finger
Manuel Degiorgio
Rebecca Degaetano
Andrea Bomboklan
Marco Trucco

Thanks again to DiVino W**es & Spirits for the lineup!

A great team tasting with a beautiful🍷lineup 🍷sponsored by The Master Cellar! We started out losing all the coin-flips, ...
04/08/2026

A great team tasting with a beautiful🍷lineup 🍷sponsored by The Master Cellar! We started out losing all the coin-flips, narrowing our calls to two options and then choosing the wrong one… Cava vs Prosecco, Bordeaux Blanc vs Italian Sauvignon, Etna vs Fiano. But then we called correctly the actual Fiano, the Gewurtztraminer and we almost got the Friulano (we spotted the Collio). Then we nailed the Carmenere, the Nebbiolo, and the fresh Sauternes. The Chateauneuf was excellent but with an unusual profile (from sandy soils), the Touriga and the Barbera are always very tough calls. A good overall score of 126 points. Team favourites: the intense Fiano from Di Meo and the very elegant Barbaresco Faset from Mura Mura in the legendary 2016 vintage. The team: Matthew DelicataAndrea BomboklanRebecca DegaetanoPierre FingerManuel DegiorgioMarco Trucco preparing for the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF

A white-only training flight! Last year, at the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF, we missed most whites. Then ...
27/07/2026

A white-only training flight! Last year, at the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF, we missed most whites. Then we were the top team on the reds. So we’ll do some extra work on the whites now, which in general are harder to guess then reds (especially Italians).
We did ok in this BYOB session: the team got the Cava/Corpinnat right, the Condrieu, the Italian Pinot Gris and the Jura Chard. Quintarelli was a super oddball and unfortunately the Rioja was corked.
68 points for 6 w**es. Not bad! The team at the tasting: Matthew Delicata Rebecca Degaetano Andrea Bomboklan Marco Trucco.

The road to the world tasting championship continues! We have to defend and improve our 12th position of last year and w...
17/07/2026

The road to the world tasting championship continues! We have to defend and improve our 12th position of last year and we need to try new w**es constantly! This 🍷lineup🍷was sponsored by M&Z What’s in the Glass and presented by
Marko Vucinic: a nice selection of tricky w**es! This time we had great calls with the whites and fumbled with the reds. We got the first four w**es almost spot-on: the Cremant de Bourgogne, the Sauvignon, the Cotes du Rhône white and the Burgundy Chard. Maybe a little bit of over-confidence kicked in and we missed the second Chard (Mercurey) and the spritzy Riesling. Among the reds we nailed the beautiful Rioja, the classic Barolo but we flipped the wrong side of the coin on the CabF/Carmenere toss-up call. Overall 109 points and some extra experience. Team favourites: the excellent Viré-Clessé from Chanson and the Viña Arana Gran Reserva from La Rioja Alta.
The Maltese W**e Knights at this tasting: Manuel Degiorgio Pierre Finger Matthew Delicata Marco Trucco. Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF

The Team is back with a cracking tasting. Seven members and Petros Skarmoutsos MC in the house! Farsonsdirect sponsored ...
05/05/2026

The Team is back with a cracking tasting. Seven members and Petros Skarmoutsos MC in the house! Farsonsdirect sponsored an absolutely stellar 🍷lineup🍷of w**es, with legendary-level producers such as Egon Müller and Chateau Grillet plus benchmarks like La Spinetta for Barbaresco, Quinta do Noval for Douro, Roda for Rioja, Shafer for Napa, Brancaia for Chianti, Berlucchi for Franciacorta, Royal Tokaij, Norton for Mendoza, Faiveley for Marsannay and Chavy Chouet for Meursault. What a treat! We started strong, nailing the Franciacorta, the Mosel Riesling and the white Rioja. The amazing Grillet and the Meursault were just too good to focus on scoring. Among the reds we got the Malbec and the Napa but we scored some points in other w**es too. A respectable total of 113 points with 10 rated w**es. We called the Barbaresco a Xinomavro probably as a nod to Petros- but we were so wrong! Team favourites: all of them really. The Riesling, the Grillet and the Touriga are just insanely good.
The team at this tasting: Aaron Rizzo Andrea Bomboklan Marco Trucco Manuel DegiorgioPierre Finger Matthew Delicata Rebecca Degaetano. Let’s go to the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF and always Visit Malta!

The Malta National Tasting Team is back! We restarted our training for the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF 20...
15/02/2026

The Malta National Tasting Team is back! We restarted our training for the Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF 2026 edition which will take place in the Palace of the Popes in Avignon. We thank Visit Malta for the support of our mission to represent Malta’s passion for w**e abroad. And we welcome a new w**e sponsor Dical House Dominic Calleja who hosted our tasting and offered a super 🍷lineup🍷. How did we do? Well… let’s call it a “recalibration session”… When you miss a Riesling and an Amarone it’s always a bit of an embarrassment. But, to our partial excuse, many w**es were atypical (and in a nice way). Team favourites were the excellent Gavi from Marrone which we missed because “it’s too good to be a Gavi!” and the elegant, balanced and modern Amarone from Villa San Paolo, which we missed because it had none of the heavy, alcoholic traits of common Amarones. Two great bottles in the portfolio of Dical. The team on this tasting: Pierre FingerAndrea Bomboklan Manuel DegiorgioAaron RizzoRebecca Degaetano Marco Trucco.

So… from 29th position last year to 12th (out of 43) this time, with one of the highest score on reds! Malta is now a se...
07/10/2025

So… from 29th position last year to 12th (out of 43) this time, with one of the highest score on reds! Malta is now a serious contender for the title of the World Blind Tasting Championship. How does it feel? Sweet and sour because we missed some of the easiest w**es and guessed what most teams missed. A top10 position was possible!
Here’s a breakdown of our points:
1. Vintage Ch*****ne - 5
2 Verdejo 🇪🇸 Rueda 2022 - 3
3. Chardonnay 🇦🇺 Margaret River 2022 - 0
4. Riesling 🇸🇰 Muzla 2020 - 10
5. Pinotage 🇿🇦 Stellenbosch 2021 - 23
6. Pinot Noir 🇺🇸 Santa Ynez 2020 - 0
7. Tempranillo 🇪🇸 Rioja 2022 - 20
8. Touriga Nacional 🇵🇹 Douro 2019 - 0
9. GSM 30% 🇫🇷 Châteauneuf-du-P 2017 - 12
10. Corvina 35% 🇮🇹 Amarone 2018 - 5
11. Riesling 🇩🇪 Rheingau 2021 Spatlese - 15
12. Furmint Harslevelu 🇭🇺 Tokaj - 3

Some w**es were super tough. The oaked verdejo and the touriga were so unusual that even the Spanish and Portuguese missed them. The aussie chard, the american pinot and the vintage ch*****ne were our biggest misses. We probably overthought a bit. On the other hand, we were one of the few teams right on the money with the Tempranillo and the Pinotage.
Next year it’s Avignon and the Chateauneuf du Pape! Will the Maltese team keep climbing the leaderboard? We have have many months ahead to prepare, and with the support of Visit Malta and the Malta w**e trade will definitely do so. Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF The **eknights 2025: Marco TruccoMatthew DelicataRebecca DegaetanoPierre FingerAndrea Bomboklan.

04/10/2025

Final result: 12th!!! We played to win with some wild bets that didn’t pay off but we’re SUPER happy with the result. let’s celebrate and we’ll post the detailed result. Thanks for watching the stream!!

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