Starting next Friday 26th June an exciting new 4 day culinary event has been organised at the InterContinental Hotel in St. Julian’s. The 2009 Dine & Wine Food Festival will be held in the hotels Carissa Gardens from 7.00pm onwards on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday Monday evenings.

Food and wine lovers will be able to taste a variety of individual food items, along with an accompanying wine at one price, or they can opt for a ‘full degustation ticket’ which will enable them to taste food and wine combinations from all the stalls. The food items that will be available will include sushi, live cooking pasta dishes, a barbecue grill area and some delicious desserts.

For Sushi lovers, not only will there be some innovative sushi creations available, but they will be accompanied by Delicata’s exciting new range of I.G.T. wines. Pjazza Regina. These three wines are all made from creative, unique blends of Malta grown grapes that make them an ideal wine to accompany sushi. The Pjazza Regina Red is a soft mellow blend of the two noble grapes Syrah and Merlot with a touch of Sangiovese which gives the wine a lovely light peppery flavour that matches the sushi pieces with a touch of spice perfectly. As for the Pjazza Regina White, it is very fruity, fairly aromatic and has a nice creamy mouth feel. This creaminess comes from the Viognier used in the blend and the aromatic fruitiness comes from the Vermentino. The final ingredient in this delicious blend comes from the Chardonnay which adds a depth of character and weight to the wine. Chilled down properly this dry wine will accompany many fish based sushi pieces superbly. Finally that leaves the Pjazza Regina Rose, which is made from a great blend of two of Malta’s best rose winemaking grapes, Grenache and our very own unique, indigenous Gellewza. Once again each of these grapes adds its own touch of personaility to the resulting wine, which when nicely chilled will be very compatible with most sushi dishes, spicy or not.

Other wines available will include a selection from wine importers Wands and Cleland & Souchet as well as Delicata’s Gellewza Frizzante Rose demi sec, Girgentina Frizzante brut and their deliciously sweet Casella Moscato, all chosen as the accompanying wines to go along side the InterContinentals sumptuous desserts.

In addition to the food and wine stalls there will be live entertainment every night performed by well known artists such as William Mangion, Red House Blues and Mike Spiteri Lucas. Entrance is free of charge and the hotels Carissa Wine & Sports bar will also be open serving an assortment of other alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages.