Grape Groups and Families - Native Wine Grapes of Italy - page 78

Badin, owner of Ronco del Gelso, another very
fi ne Isonzo estate in Friuli, believes that “the
keys are rocky, nutrient-poor soils that are low
in clay, and the choice of rootstock. While you'd
think less vigorous ones would prove best, not
so with this grape: using somewhat vigorous
rootstocks is better, as they handle water stress
better in gravelly terrains.”
Malvasia Istriana is actually most wide-
spread in nearby Croatia, where, as of 2010,
over three thousand hectares of it are planted
(compared to the roughly two hundred hectares
of Italy). Fine producers include Moreno Coro-
nica, Kabola, Gianfranco Kozlevic´, a nd Br u no
Trapan, but some producers such as Giorgio
Clai and Roxanich employ long maceration
techniques that result, in my view at least, in
wines that taste (as almost all white wines do
when made in this manner) like less than thrill-
ing red wine wannabes. Malvasia Istriana has
also been planted in Australia. There, the Vinea
Marson estate in Heathcote makes a wine called
Grazia (a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot
Bianco, Malvasia Istriana, and Friulano, a take
on some of Friuli Venezia Giulia's best-known
white wine blends such as Vintage Tunina or
Terre Alte) and the Chalmers Project in Murray
Darling produced a lovely air-dried sweet-styled
2009 blend of Picolit and Malvasia Istriana.

dered if the craze for aromatic wines that swept
Italy in the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst cen-
tury had led some producers to plant aromatic
Malvasia grapevines instead of the Istriana
variety—events such as these are not unheard
of in Italy. But it's not so, according to Gian-
franco Gallo. His Dessimis is, nowadays, a very
aromatic Malvasia wine, and yet I distinctly
remember much older vintages made in the
family being anything but aromatic. So how
could this be? I asked. “I think it's a matter of
cultivation technique, soil fertility, pruning
methods, and harvest timing,” he told me mat-
ter-of-factly. “I remember the 1976 and 1981
vintages of my family's malvasia: as you say,
they were wines devoid of truly aromatic char-
acter. But honestly, we had much higher yields
then and the varietal expression of the wine
was nullifi ed by our wrongheaded viticulture
choices.” In other words, lowering yields allows
the variety's true aromatic nature to shine
through. (This may also be true, to a much
lesser extent, of Malvasia del Lazio.)
Winemaking with Malvasia Istriana is not
particularly complex. However, as a good deal
of the variety's aromatic potential is the result
of molecules located next to the cuticle of the
grape skins, some producers opt for a short,
cold maceration of the berries before fermenta-
tion. This can be tricky: over the years, more
than one producer has told me that if the
polyphenol-endowed Malvasia Istriana grape
skins are not completely ripe, the resulting
wine risks unpleasant aromas of caulifl ower or
chrysanthemum. When all goes well, Malvasia
Istriana's wealth of norisoprenoids ensures that
with bottle age (roughly three years, in my
experience), wines develop aromas of apricot,
peach, and wisteria; later still, with the forma-
tion of dihydronapthalene, the typical diesel
fuel or hydrocarbon aroma characteristic of
Riesling wines becomes pronounced.
Though it has also been planted elsewhere
in Italy (Puglia and Veneto), Malvasia Istriana
performs best in Friuli Venezia Giulia, where
wines are generically labeled malvasia, with the
appellation or DOC attached: Carso malvasia,

Which Wines to Choose and Why
To my mind, the best dry white Malvasia wines
in Italy are made with this variety, but I never
cease to be amazed by the diversity of wines
produced even within Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Furthermore, I remain in awe of the extreme
makeover these wines have undergone over the
last fi fteen years: whereas Malvasia Istriana
wines of the 1980s were always mineral but
neutral, today some can be remarkably aro-
matic—some wines remind me of gewürz-
traminer or moscato bianco. For anybody who
was drinking Italian wines regularly twenty or
thirty years ago, this new aspect of Friuli's Mal-
vasia Istriana wines is obvious, and has puz-
zled me for years, as grapes are either aromatic
or nonaromatic, never both. Initially, I won-