Grape Variety: Malvasia

Colour: White

Old Simon the Cellarer kept a rare store
of Malmsey and Malvoisie

Simon the Cellarer - W.H. Bellamy

I’m putting all my Malvasias in one butt of Malmsey and drowning them in a single entry
This grape has existed for about 2,000 years. It is believed to have come from the area around the Aegean Sea, possibly from what is now the south-western area of Turkey and the islands between Turkey and Greece. The name “Malvasia” is generally thought to derive from Monemvasia, a Venetian fortress on the coast of Laconia, known in Italian as “Malvasia”; A competing theory holds that the name is derived from the district of Malevizi near the city of Heraklion (known to the Venetians as Candia) on Crete.
Malvasia is primarily a white-wine grape, but it has many known subvarieties, including a red version called Malvasia Nera. The red grape is chiefly grown in Italy-around Piedmont in the north and Puglia in the south. It produces very perfumed wines (think Muscat with muscles) and lends a delightful fragrance to some Italian red wines. The white variations are better known, the most recognized strains being Malvasia Bianca del Chianti, Malvasia del Lazio, Malvasia delle Lipari, Malvasia di Candia, Malvasia di Sardegna, and Malvasia Istriana (or Malvasia Friulana). These white varieties are grown all around the Mediterranean in one form or another. They produce golden, perfumed, flavourful wines with hints of apricots, musk, and almonds. Unfortunately, Malvasia is not an extremely high-yielding vine and is being replaced by better-producing but less-flavourful grapes such as Trebbiano in Italy and Viura in Spain. Malvasia is made into a variety of finished wines - dry, sweet, fortified and sparkling-but probably is best known for its sweet fortified products. On the island of Madeira, the Malvasia variety is called Malmsey and is combined with Tinto Negra Mole and Verdehlo. The sweetest and richest style of Madeira wine is also often referred to as Malmsey. In Portugal, some port makers use Malvasia grapes in their white port.

Marega’s Malvasia Istriana from the Collio region has immense personaility. 50% of the must is fermented in oak barrels called “Holbar” (capacity of 300 litres) and aged for at least eight months. The other 50% is stainless steel vinification. After extraction from the barrels, the two parts are assembled in a tank and remain there for almost one year. It is an attractive straw yellow with greenish tints, an extremely aromatic bouquet of vanilla, green pepper and sambuca. The finish is dry, full and persistent. This wine was awarded five stars by a Decanter tasting panel. “Quite weighty but perfumed, with ripe peachy fruit and some freshness. Fantastic palate has lovely texture, great acid and some freshness.”

La Stoppa’s Ageno is an orange-a-boom blend of Malvasia Aromatico (60%), Ortruga and Trebbiano from 35-year-old vines grown at 250m. The grapes are macerated on the skins with native yeasts for thirty days and, the wine is matured half in stainless steel and half in French barriques. Amber in colour and aromatically redolent of peach, pear and sweet apricot, this is, as Randall Grahm might say, “like Gewurztraminer on acid”.