Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of confusion surrounds this variety's identity.
Based on currently available SSR profi ling,
many experts consider Malvasia Nera di Brin-
disi to be identical to Malvasia Nera di Lecce
and have come up with the unoffi cial name of
Malvasia Nera di Brindisi/Lecce for this variety.
However, not all agree and recent, more exten-
sive, genetic testing by Meneghetti, Bavaresco,
Calò, and Costacurta (2013) has shown that
there exist some genetic differences between
these two cultivars. Since the two
Malvasia
Nera
s look and behave very differently (and not
just relative to winemaking), some experts
want to keep Malvasia Nera di Brindisi and
Malvasia Nera di Lecce separate. To date, these
two cultivars remain distinct in the National
Registry.
Maurizo Castelli, the famous winemaker
who consults for around twenty estates in Italy,
says that “the problem with the
Malvasia Nera
s
from Brindisi and Lecce is that they have unsta-
ble anthocyanins, and their wines tend to oxi-
dize over time. For this reason, many producers
don't want to use them in wines meant to age.
Also, despite what you may think given its
warm and sunny Puglian home, both these
Malvasia Nera
s also need to be grown in very
cool places—if they aren't, in time, the wines
tend to develop strong notes of burnt tobacco
that aren't to everybody's liking.” Castelli, who
registered a few old biotypes of
Malvasia Nera
he selected in vineyards over time (he believes
them to be most likely Malvasia Nera di
Brindisi, given the characteristic lightly aro-
matic nature of some of his
Malvasia Nera
-con-
taining wines), also feels that Malvasia Nera di
Brindisi does best in soils that contain hefty
doses of sand, which are more common in
Puglia than Chianti. For the same reason, Leon-
ardo Palumbo, one of Puglia's best-known win-
emakers, feels that Malvasia Nera di Brindisi
does better in areas like Manduria, rather than
around Locorotondo. The variety, a fairly early
ripener usually harvested in the fi rst half of
September (neatly separating it from Malvasia
Nera di Lecce, which ripens much later), is
characterized by small bunches (recognizably
smaller than those of the Lecce variety), but
clearly the phenotype depends to an extent on
the clone or biotype examined. There are three
available clones: Santa Lucia 2, UBA 69/E and
UBA 70/A. Interestingly, and in keeping with
the notion that these two are separate varieties,
these clones are different from the offi cial
clones of Malvasia Nera di Lecce. The variety is
also characterized by high vigor and low fertil-
ity of the basal buds; its grapes tend to have low
acidity and high pH. Pietro Colucci, owner of
the Barsento estate in Noci near Bari, feels it's
also a great variety with which to make
rosato,
but cautions that “the skins need to be thick to
hold up to the winemaking process, or they
break down easily and the wine develops off-
putting smells.” In fact,
Malvasia Nera
s, much
like Sangiovese, are reductive varieties, and
good winemaking is essential to bring out the
best the variety has to offer.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Malvasia Nera di Brindisi is also grown in Tus-
cany and Calabria, though its home is Puglia
(mainly in the provinces of Bari, Brindisi,
Lecce, and Taranto), where it's used for DOC
wine blends Copertino, Lizzano, Squinzano,
and others. It is apparently a great deal more
common than Malvasia Nera di Lecce, with
twice as many hectares planted to it in Italy
compared to Malvasia Nera di Lecce. The fact
that it is an early ripening variety compared to
the latter variety may explain why Malvasia
Nera di Brindisi is also the more common of
the two in Tuscany, a generally cooler region
than Puglia, and with much longer growing
seasons. According to Sergio Botrugno of the
Puglian estate Botrugno, the
crus
for this vari-
ety in Puglia are contrada Lobia, contrada
Conella, and contrada Montenegro, all of them
around Brindisi. In Tuscany, Malvasia Nera di
Brindisi is added to Sangiovese in many wines
such as Chianti, much as Canaiolo Nero might
be, and though it is less used than other com-
plementary varieties (both native and interna-
tional) some of Tuscany's greatest wines are in
fact made with 10-50 percent of what is most
