Meridiana Wine Estate

Meridiana Wine Estate is one of the few places in Malta where you can walk among the vines, see wine being made and then taste it where it was grown. The winery sits at Ta' Qali, on the flat agricultural plain in the middle of the island, with the walled hilltop city of Mdina rising above it. Since the late 1980s its mission has been to make premium wines with a distinctly Maltese character, using only grapes grown on Maltese soil.

For visitors, the draw is a booked tour of the winery followed by a tasting on terraces that look across the vineyard. It makes an easy half day in central Malta, and it combines naturally with a visit to Mdina. For places to eat in the area, see our page on restaurants in Attard, and for the old city above the estate, our Mdina guide.

Winery tours and tastings

A visit to Meridiana is built around a guided tour of the estate. You are taken through the fermentation hall and down into the underground cellar, both housed within a picturesque building designed in the manner of a traditional Maltese farmhouse. Along the way the staff explain how the wines are made, which makes the visit as useful for a curious beginner as for a keen wine lover wanting to learn more.

The tour ends with a tasting of the estate's premium wines, served on panoramic terraces that overlook the vineyard, and for many guests this is the high point of the visit. The estate offers different tour and tasting packages, but their contents and prices are not published online, so ask the staff to explain the options when you get in touch.

The estate's own photographs give a sense of the format: groups seated on a covered terrace while a guide talks them through the wines, bottles of white, rosé and red set out with glasses, and plates of bread and small bites laid on a checked tablecloth beside them. Tours run on the estate's opening days and must be reserved in advance.

The winery, cellars and vineyard

The estate covers 19 hectares, or 47 acres, including the winery, cellars, offices and passageways, and 17 hectares of that are planted with vines. Chardonnay takes the largest share at 8 hectares, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon on 3.5 hectares, Merlot on 3 hectares and Syrah on 2.5 hectares. Every one of the 91,000 vines has its own drip irrigation, and 1,000 Moscato vines were added in 2013.

Malta's temperate Mediterranean climate does much of the work. The estate lies on a plain in the centre of the island, never far from the sea, beneath a scatter of small hills of which Mdina is the most famous. The soil is chalky, sitting over a thick layer of blue clay that holds moisture, and together these conditions produce wines with bright colour, clean aromas and lively acidity.

The winery itself is built from Malta's pale local limestone. Its process hall holds stainless steel tanks, each with its own temperature control, used to make and store the wine. Below ground, the cellars stay naturally between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius and are stocked with French oak barriques for ageing the reds. The central building also contains a bottling hall, tasting rooms and a cellar shop.

From wartime airfield to wine estate

Meridiana began with a conversation in 1985 between its founder, Mark Miceli-Farrugia, and the Bordeaux oenologist Denis Dubourdieu, who convinced him that Malta could grow high-quality wine. The company was founded in April 1987 with advice from the oenologist Roger Aquilina, and the name and the sundial emblem both nod to the islands' southern position in Europe.

After trials with different grape varieties and rootstocks, the 19-hectare site at Ta' Qali was bought in 1989. The land had been an airfield during the Second World War, and one of the estate's photographs shows it from the air in black and white. In 1992 Marchese Piero Antinori, from a Florentine family whose winemaking history goes back to 1385, became a financial and technical partner, helping to win over local banks that were wary of such a new idea.

The vines went in during 1994 and 1995, and the purpose-built winery was finished in 1996. The first small harvests of red and white took place in 1995 and 1996, and that first release sold out within weeks. Demand at home has stayed strong enough that some wines still sell out before the next vintage is ready.

The white wines and the rosé

Meridiana makes ten labels, four whites, a rosé and five reds, with around 140,000 bottles a year, and all carry the DOK Malta classification. Most names recall the Phoenician gods and goddesses once worshipped in the islands. Among the whites, Isis is a Chardonnay with grapefruit and white fruit on the nose and a long, citrus finish, while Astarte is a Vermentino with tropical and citrus aromas. Fenici White blends Vermentino, Chardonnay and Viognier into a light, fresh glass, and Baltis is a sweet passito made from sun-dried Moscato grapes, golden in colour, with notes of dried figs, dates, sultanas and toasted honey, produced in very small numbers in half bottles only.

Several of the wines come in more than one bottle size, with half bottles of 375ml available for many labels alongside the standard 750ml, which can be handy if you want to take a couple of different wines home in your luggage. The cellar shop in the main winery building is the place to ask about buying.

The red wines

The reds include Melqart, a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend with blackberry fruit and silky tannins, aged for 6 to 8 months in French oak; Bel, a smoky, spicy Syrah; and Nexus, a Merlot with cherry and plum flavours aged for 10 months in barrique. Celsius is the reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, full-bodied with blackcurrant and chocolate notes, given 14 months in oak and a further 9 in bottle. The Fenici range, in white, rosé and red, is the easy-drinking line, made from estate grapes and from closely supervised vineyards nearby, and Fenici Rosé shows strawberry and cherry aromas.

The labels carry their own small stories. Isis recalls the Phoenician goddess of sailors whose eye is still painted on the prow of the Maltese luzzu fishing boat, Melqart is named after the Phoenician god of sailors, and Nexus refers to the meeting of Malta's Old World location with New World winemaking technology. Celsius, meanwhile, salutes the importance of temperature control in modern winemaking.

Groups, receptions and private events

The estate is a well-known place of interest in Malta, partly because of national pride in its wines and partly because of the beauty of the setting. Many incoming tour operators include winery tours and tastings at Meridiana in their programmes, and event companies bring groups here for team building and business receptions.

Meridiana also arranges tailor-made private and corporate events. The photographs show long tables dressed for a meal on the terrace above the vines, and a room inside the winery laid for a celebration. If you are planning a group visit or a special occasion, contact the estate's events team with your date and numbers. Our guide to hotels in Mdina and Rabat lists places to stay close by, and our wider guide to where to stay in Malta compares the main bases.

Opening hours, booking and nearby

The estate opens from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday, with Saturday visits available on request. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Tours and tastings need a reservation, and the online booking and contact forms are currently under maintenance, so requests go to the estate by email or by phone. The web shop form is not working either, so wine orders are also handled by email.

Ta' Qali is at the heart of Malta, so the estate is easy to reach from most parts of the island. Make a day of it with lunch nearby: our pages on Ta' Marija Restaurant and Chukkas Razzett l-Aħmar cover two options in neighbouring Mosta. For more ideas, see our list of things to do in Malta, and if you are still picking dates, our Malta weather guide shows what to expect month by month. To ask about a tour, a tasting or a private event, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the estate.