Make your own wine at Meridiana

You've walked the tour and learned to taste. Part five hands you the grapes. This is the make your own wine game at Meridiana's blending bench, down in the candlelit cellar: your grapes, your choices, your label, and a bottle that gets better while you're away.

Pick your grapes

Find the bench in the cellar; once your blend is ageing, Clara greets you on the terrace with it ("Check your blend"). It's €8, the bottle included. There are six grapes to choose from: Ġellewża, Merlot and Syrah for red, Girgentina, Chardonnay and Vermentino for white. Ġellewża and Girgentina are Malta's own.

Pick up to three and drag their shares. As you do, four bars move: fruit, body, spice and fresh. Clara's brief for the day sits on them as little gold marks ("something fresh for summer", "a big red for a long dinner"), so you can aim for it, or ignore it and make what you like.

The colour comes from the grapes, the way it does in a real winery: all white grapes make a white, a little red makes a rosé, and more makes a red.

Steel or oak

A steel tank keeps it fresh and fruity, best for whites and rosé. An oak barrel adds vanilla, spice and softness, best for reds. Oak is the first thing your wine passport opens: it's there for you once you reach the Taster stage.

How long

Bottle it now, or let it age 3, 7 or 21 real days. Longer rounds it out: more body, a little less sharpness.

Your label

Draw it with your finger. The game cleans up the lines as you lift your finger, so even a wobbly drawing comes out neat. Pick a paper (cream, white, kraft or black) and an ink, give it a name, and cork it with a pop. The label says who made it and what's in it: "Golden Hour, by you · Ġellewża, Merlot, Syrah · oak, 7 days".

Ageing in the cellar

Your bottle sleeps by the candle in the cellar, with your label on it, and you can see it there. It goes from young to settling, rounded and at its best, one real day at a time, and the cellar shows you "day 4 of 7". You can open it early; it's allowed, but it's sharper. Once it's ready, take it home to your fridge and open it there, perhaps with guests. Three blends can age at once.

Every blend's name goes through the game's name filter, and players can report a name or a label they don't think belongs. One report never hides a blend: when three players report it, it's hidden until a moderator decides, and a moderator can put it straight back.

Four more stamps

Your first blend, a label of your own, a blend aged in oak, and a bottle opened at its best all go into your passport.

Questions people ask

Do I need to come back for it?

It keeps ageing whether you're playing or not. Come back when it's ready to take it home.

What happens to my blend's brief?

Clara's brief is just a goal for the day. Next comes the monthly blend competition, where blends are judged against the month's brief.

Is this real winemaking?

Simplified, but the ideas are real: grapes decide the colour, steel keeps fruit, oak adds spice and softness, and time rounds a wine out. Wine Folly is a good place to read more.

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