Pillar 04 · Food & Where to Eat

Maltese Wine in Żejtun: Local Bars and Bottles

Maltese wine has come a long way in twenty years and is now seriously worth ordering when you eat in Żejtun. A short local guide to the bottles, the bars, and the indigenous grape varieties.

This article is a stub. We’ll add named bars and a current bottle list as we expand it.

The Maltese wine scene, briefly

Malta’s modern wine industry is small but increasingly serious. The two indigenous grapes worth ordering are Ġellewża (a red, lightly tannic, often used for rosé) and Girgentina (a white, lemony, with a faint salinity that pairs well with Mediterranean fish). Beyond the indigenous varieties, the Maltese wineries have planted respectable Syrah, Vermentino, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the better restaurants in Żejtun now run Maltese-only or Maltese-led wine lists. There are several wineries worth knowing — Marsovin, Delicata, Meridiana, and a small number of newer producers — but in general the right strategy in a Żejtun restaurant is to ask the waiter what they like and let them choose.

For drinking outside meals, the band club bars stock a basic Maltese list, and a small handful of wine bars in town go deeper. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to confirm any current dedicated wine bars in Żejtun and which restaurants have the most ambitious lists.]

How to read a Maltese wine list

A Maltese wine list typically opens with a couple of indigenous-grape wines — Ġellewża and Girgentina — followed by international varieties grown locally and then a small selection of imports. The more ambitious lists will name specific vineyards and harvest years, the way a serious Italian list would. The less ambitious lists give you the producer name and not much else. Order on the basis of the more specific information; if the list only says ‘house red’ without further detail, ask the waiter what’s actually open. House wine in Maltese restaurants is often surprisingly good, but you have to ask.

What this article will cover

  • The indigenous grapes and how to read a Maltese wine label
  • The principal Maltese wineries
  • Restaurants in Żejtun with serious Maltese wine lists
  • Wine bars in town
  • What to pair with bragioli, ftira, and aljotta
  • How to bring bottles home

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Food & Where to Eat pillar. Pair with Sunday lunch, best restaurants, and traditional Maltese food.

Mattew Cassar

Resident · Writer

Mattew writes zejtun.com from a flat above his grandfather’s old workshop on Triq San Girgor. He has lived in Żejtun for twenty-three of his thirty-one years.