Malta, or should I say Gozo, has its first artisanal brewery with the opening in June of Lord Chambray at the Gozitana Agricultural Village in Xewkija. While on a visit to Gozo, I went to meet Samuele d'Imperio, the managing director of Lord Chambray to discover why they set their eyes on making Malta's first craft beer. He told me the family had been visiting Gozo every summer for the past 25 years and it was always their dream to eventually buy a property with a view on Malta's sister island. They finally bought a property in Fort Chambray around five years ago. It has always been his parents' dream to retire on the island of Gozo. His father, an accountant, is around five years away from retirement. Samuele, also an accountant, fell in love with craft beers during a year working with Deloitte in Sydney. "We love Gozo and we wanted to do something for Malta and Gozo. But this is both my family's and my first experience making beer." They are however in good hands. … [Read more...]
Lord Chambray – Malta’s first artisanal beer
Craft or artisanal beer has taken the beer scene by storm worldwide. Craft breweries are opening and beer lovers are slowly starting to move from the commercial beers to microbreweries. Even in countries where beer does not have such a tradition, the rise of artisan beers has been astonishing. The concept of an artisanal beer is different and once you get accustomed to the taste it is not easy to return to a commercially brewed beer. Living in Belgium means that I get to taste many great craft beers all with different flavours and styles. But it is also exciting to discover that this new trend has reached the country where I was born and lived for most of my life. Malta is therefore following in this trend thanks to an Italian family, with a love for Gozo, who have invested money to launch the country's first artisanal beers. When I read about Lord Chambray a few weeks ago I knew that this was a very important development for Malta and Gozo particularly since Malta already … [Read more...]
Tmun in Mgarr harbour, Gozo
Visiting a fishing port has a certain allure to it. Gozo’s fishing port of Mgarr is a small but picturesque harbour which is busy particularly in the summer months with the constant shuttling of visitors from the island of Malta for the period in mid-August around the feast of Santa Maria. Mgarr harbour with its small passenger terminal is no longer just a fisherman’s harbour particularly since tourism on the island is an essential part of the island’s economy. Nevertheless over the past years, it has become the venue of a number of interesting restaurants and bars just alongside the fishing boats many of which were out at sea. One of the best restaurants on the island can be found here. It-Tmun rose to popularity in Xlendi, a sea-side resort on the other side of the island before it moved to Mgarr a few years ago. Tmun in Mgarr has gone from strength to strength. Now this is a family which is renowned in the Maltese restaurant schene. Leli, the owner of the restaurant has … [Read more...]