Appointment of Our New Oenologist

The Dacoutros Winery, which re-launched itself only last month, has recently appointed Ivan Petrov as their Malta based Oenologist. Ivan is of Slovenian citizenship and has over 21 years experience making wines and spirits in Macedonia and Slovenia. He is graduated as an Agricultural Engineer from the University in Skopje in Macedonia.

Together with the winery's two other oenologists based in Greece, Dimitris Gouravas, a graduate Agronomist-Oenologist from the University of Bordeaux, and George Vekios Ph D who has been the company's oenology consultant since 2003, Petrov will man the wine making and bottling operations at the Dacoutros winery, near the Valletta Waterfront, together with Jesmond Garrett chief engineer.

As the oldest winery in Malta, dating back to 1881, Dacoutros Wines, is today proud to offer the public an array of novel wines under their brand names of "Merino", "Perla Nera" and "Regatta". They also offer keen wine enthusiasts an interesting choice of variety. It was in fact, Dimitris Gouravas himself, who over-saw the pressing of Dacoutros' Malta DOK grapes in August 2007, a projct that is now maturing very well.

Dacoutros' 1881 winery marks anniversary with presentation to HE President of the Republic

John Dacoutros and Sons Ltd. re-entered the Maltese wine market at the start of this year with the introduction of three of their new brands of wines. Situated right in the heart of the very aptly named Triq l-Ghassara ta’ l-Gheneb in Marsa, specifically named after their major wine business started there in 1881, the new Dacoutros Winery has re-launched itself through a fourth generation management where, ironically, the “sons” are conspicuous with their absence – this time there are two women at the helm.

Starting off their 125th Anniversary celebrations, the family has presented their first commemorative medal to celebrate this anniversary to H.E. the President of Malta, Dr Edward Fenech Adami, at the Palace earlier this week. The Directors explained briefly their family’s history, but discovered that the President was 100% very well versed about the Company especially from information gained on their website. This Commemorative medal shows the picture of the founder Giovanni Dacoutros 1871-1955 and on the obverse side a relief of his well known wine carrier the S/S Maria Dacoutros.

All three of the Dacoutros Winery's new brands are available in over 1,500 outlets in Malta and Gozo. Dacoutros intends to increase its range of high quality wines to reach its new target as one of the leading negociants of only high quality wines in Malta.

Dacoutros DOK Wines

It is widely acknowledged that the European Union (EU) is the world’s leading producer, consumer, exporter and importer of wine. EU wines have earned an enviable reputation worldwide for their incomparable quality. The EU has a complex network of rules dealing with the classification of wine and the rules for making it. In spite of this, the classification of wines varies considerably between Member States.

“We are more than excited at our winery in knowing that the local grapes we have been pressing in the past weeks will be labelled as DOK or IGT”, Dacoutros winery General Manager Diana Cutajar Dacoutros said.

For this special occasion Dacoutros winery inaugurated new cutting edge technology including fully automatic crushing, pressing and chilling systems which have been recently installed at their 125 year old renovated winery located at Xatt l-Għassara ta’ l-Għeneb, near the Valletta Waterfront.

This year’s vintage at the Dacoutros winery is being orchestrated by renowned Greek Oenologist Dimitris Gouravas who holds a Ph.D in oenology from the University of Bordeaux.  Mr. Gouravas is currently in charge of nine wineries in Crete, Santorini, Kavalla, Nemea, and Thesaloniki, seven of which are owned by John Boutari, Greece’s largest wine making group.

The Dacoutros DOK wines which are expected to hit the Maltese market in October 2008 will be joining wines from Greece for a new launch in Boston New York, USA.

1881 winery launches new Brands

John Dacoutros and Sons Ltd, a local company which was originally founded in 1881, will soon be expected to hit the Maltese market with its new famous brands of wines. With Greek Oenologists and Californian technology, Dacoutros will be offering the public an array of novel wines with tastes that make you experience wine like never before.

Giovanni Dacoutros, the founder of the company, was a businessman of Greek Nationality and suffered immensely during two world wars and also during the perennial wars between Greece and Turkey. For many decades, the company owned or had majority shares in 12 ships, to bring its wines to Malta from Spain, Greece and Italy. His fleet of ships all had a somewhat unfortunate destiny. Most were eaten up by the enemy in World wars I and II and the rest were lost at sea. The winery at Marsa was also bombed by Hitler in April 1944.

The Company is very proud that throughout its 125 year history not a single member of its staff, be it workers on shore, Captains or sailors, ever lost his life at work. Giovanni Dacoutros had come to Malta from Santorini, at the age of 10 with John Basil Sorotto and lived here continuously for 75 years. He only travelled to Santorini once and left within a few hours in fear of being forcibly drafted into the military service.

It is widely known that before and during the 1950 Boffa era, the local wine industry was among one of the most respected economic activities on the Island. The wine industry employed thousands of Maltese and Gozitans as labourers and seamen and wine consumption always formed a very good source of revenue for the Maltese Treasury.

Dacoutros was once one of Malta’s largest wine importers. According to the Malta Government Blue Book for the year 1905-6, the importation of wine into Malta amounted to 357,423 barrels equivalent to about 153,000 hectolitres of wine in one year. This was mainly imported by Dacoutros, Coleiro, Mallia Pulverenti and Vella of Gozo (Kalkanja).

Today, Malta and Gozo consume about 100,000 hectolitres per annum, produced or imported by some 250 wine companies. It is recorded that in the early 1900’s it was calculated that for every 75 inhabitants in Malta (exclusive of the British Garrison) there was one wine bar, and this in a community much smaller than that of today.

Probably the most famous sailing vessel in the Dacoutros fleet was the “S/S Maria Dacoutros.” She was built in 1902 at Castellammare di Stabia in Italy and sank in April 1953 at Cape Zevgari, which lies within the British Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. According to the famous Lloyds of London, the “S/S Maria Dacoutros” was the largest and last surviving purposely built oak wine carrying tanker of its kind in the world.

In October 2006, Diana and Cristina Dacoutros (the fourth generation) visited Cape Zevgari in an attempt at obtaining information from a diving club in the area about this wreck. Since the Cape lies within the boundaries of the Royal Air Force (RAF) station, the two sisters were escorted out by the RAF personnel as Cape Zevgari is today under the authority of the Permanent Joint Headquarters.

John G Dacoutros, their father, is currently putting his finishing touches to a 250 page book about his family’s wine and shipping history entitled “Ships, wine and war”.

In order to reflect better the changing face of technology, the Dacoutros 125 year old winery is currently undergoing a major overhaul. Dacoutros will be employing about 30 heads in their winery with a total investment of over LM3.8 (Euro 8.8) million. This reflects the opportunity and growth of the wine business in Malta and the business acumen of the family during the past years. A variety of vacancies are being offered to young men and women who intend joining a team of highly progressive and motivated young staff.