Meridiana's vineyard all year

Most of the year a vineyard is quiet, but it's never idle. Part seven turns Meridiana's rows into a vineyard game you can visit every month: the vines change with the real seasons, there's a job for each, you can adopt a vine of your own, and in August the whole estate turns out for the harvest festival.

The vineyard all year

Walk into the vineyard and you see the season, in the rows themselves and on the card: bare canes in winter, buds in spring, green in summer, heavy dark bunches at harvest, gold and red leaves in autumn. It follows the real Malta calendar:

• Winter (December to February): pruning. Snip the old canes and keep the two strong ones.
• Spring (March to May): buds, then tiny flowers. Count them as they open.
• Summer (June and July): the grapes swell and change colour. Check which have turned.
• Harvest (August and September): the picking game.
• Autumn (October and November): the leaves turn gold and fall. Gather them.

Each season's job is a short game, once a day: some Fun and Fitness, and in winter, a stamp for your wine passport if you prune well.

Adopt a vine

Once your passport reaches its Enthusiast stage, you can adopt a vine for €20 a season. Pick its grape (Ġellewża, Girgentina, Syrah or Vermentino) and it's yours: "Ana's Ġellewża", on a real row, with a little slate tag everyone can see. Its card shows your vine's year as a time-lapse, from bare wood to grapes. Visit to tend it once a day (water in summer, prune in winter), and after every harvest you've paid through, two bottles from your row arrive in your fridge, ready to open with guests.

Out among the vines

• A picnic between the rows: a basket from Luca for two to six of you, €8. Everyone gets Social and a full stomach.
• The sunset walk: through the rows at golden hour to the table for two.
• A tractor ride: Milan drives you round the estate for three minutes, €3. "Hold on. The bumpy bit is the old runway."
• A photo at the old airfield stone, where the Second World War runway ran.

The harvest festival

From August into September, the vineyard is busy:

• The picking game: 45 seconds, dark bunches only. A morning's picking pays a small wage by how well you picked, from €1 up to €6, once a day.
• Winemaker for a day: follow your crate from the vine to the press and into the tank.
• Grape-stomping night, Saturdays from seven: get your friends in a tub, barefoot, and stomp to the beat while the juice rises. The tub with the most juice wins a magnum each.
• A live band on the terrace, free once you've picked that day.

Out of season, the festival card says when it opens, and you can ask to be told.

Eight more stamps

A vine of your own, pruning in winter, picking at harvest, stomping night, winemaker for a day, a picnic, the tractor ride and the airfield stone all go into your passport.

Questions people ask

What if I stop playing for a while?

Your vine stays yours. It keeps its tag while its season is paid, and its bottles wait in your fridge or storage.

Why is the harvest closed?

Because it's not August. In Malta the harvest runs from August into early September; the rest of the year has its own work. Sometimes the estate holds a harvest weekend, and then it opens early.

Is the old airfield real?

Yes: Ta' Qali was a wartime airfield before it became farmland and the national park around it. Meridiana's own site tells the estate's story.

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