Wine Law

that is the ageing, bottling and ageing in bottles, to be carried out within the territory of the region of production which, according to this Schedule, the territory shall be the whole region of the Maltese Islands. Moreover, the production of wines must consider their alcoholic strength, and the Schedule provides that for the finished wine ready of consumption, the minimum alcoholic level must be 10.5% for all white and rosé typologies, 11.0% for all red typologies and, specifically excluded therefrom, is the indigenous grape, Ġellewża mono-varietal typology, which is expected to be 10.5% minimum. Given the fact that this Subsidiary Legislation has been adopted from EU Legislation, it is accepted to make specific references to such legislation, as contemplated in the last Article of the Schedule, which provides: “ Community Law shall apply in cases where this protocol does not explicitly indicate otherwise. ” 17 . 3.3. Legal Notice No. 416 of 2007, “DOK Wines Production Protocols Regulations” This Subsidiary Legislation 436.07 specifically regulates the DOK, being subsequently amended in part by Legal Notice No. 168 of 2011 entitled “DOK Wines Production Protocols (Amendment) Regulations”. Furthermore, Legal Notice No. 416 is four pages long with eight Articles; however, the effective provisions thereof, which are rather detailed and pertaining to it, are carried in two Schedules as expected, since the DOK certified wines must be closely monitored to be so certified according to a rather rigid protocol as shall be briefly referred to hereunder. Schedule I is entitled “Production Protocol of the “MALTA” D.O.K. wines” and has three annexes, whilst Schedule II, entitled “Production Protocol of the “GOZO” D.O.K. wines”, only has two annexes. The annexes have been referred to for comparison purposes under Legal Notice No. 167 of 2007. Both these Schedules overlap extensively with each other. It is not the intension of this paper to replicate what is carried in the relative Legal Notice, which is motivated by the EU Legislation to achieve a DOK certification of locally produced wines but to focus on the main provisions thereof. 17 Ibid , Schedule I, Article 10.1