Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
both a “wine from Monembasia” as well as a
“malvasia di Creta” (from the island of Crete)
are mentioned, so the rabbit-style proliferation
of
Malvasia
wines had already begun by then.
Interestingly, Malvasia di Creta wine was appar-
ently dry and was sold only in Italy, while other
Malvasia
wines were sweet (sweet malvasias
were a specialty of the city of Retimno), made
in the “Greek” fashion, either by concentrating
the musts via cooking, by adding resin, or by
air-drying the grapes, techniques that allowed
the wines to travel well.
Thanks to modern genetic research, we
know that most
Malvasia
s are not just unre-
lated, but probably don't originate from Greece
either (Crespan, Cabello, Giannetto, Ibanez,
Karoglan Kontic, Maletic, Pejic, Rodriguez, and
Antonacci 2006a). Given that the name “mal-
vasia” helped propel sales, wines made from a
Malvasia
variety (or, more often, made in a style
reminiscent of
Malvasia
wines), became com-
mon in all countries of the Mediterranean
basin. Therefore, when you vacation in the
Canary islands or Cyprus, you are likely to fi nd
Malvasia
wines there just as you do in Italy.
Nowadays, malvasias are made not just in
Greece and Italy, but also in Cyprus, Slovenia
(where it's called Malvezerec), Croatia (Malvasi-
jie), southern France (Malvoisie), Spain (Malva-
gia or Malvasia), the Canary Islands, Portugal,
and Madeira (Malmsey). Ironically, today there
are no wine producers in Greece's Monemva-
sia: the producer of Monemvasia wines is G.
Tsimpidis & Co. / Monemvasia Winery, actually
situated in Velies, a small town ten kilometers
away. Suffi ce it to say that Molon (1906) devoted
sixteen pages to the
Malvasia
family alone in
his landmark ampelography text. Unfortu-
nately in most of those regions, you won't
really
be tasting a
Malvasia
wine, since homonyms
were and are common. For example, the Mal-
voisie à Petit Grains of southern France is actu-
ally Rolle (called Vermentino in Italy) and Nus
Malvoisie, a wine made around the pretty little
town of Nus in Italy's landlocked, mountainous
Valle d'Aosta, is made not with a
Malvasia,
but
with Pinot Grigio.
Unlike their similarly well-nourished
Moscato
brethren, the
Malvasia
varieties are not
characterized by a unifying trait such as the
distinctive “muscaty” aroma; unlike
Moscato
s,
they are not all aromatic. Based on this observa-
tion, Di Rovasenda in 1877 attempted a classifi -
cation of
Malvasia
vines in two large groups,
aromatic and nonaromatic, believing, not
unreasonably in my view, that only the former
should be named
Malvasia.
More recently, the
Malvasia
s were classified into four major
groups, with almost all the aromatic varieties
included in one. Unfortunately, some members
of one wine group will express aromas believed
to be typical of varieties in other groups. For
example, some
Moscato
varieties express aro-
mas also typical of
Malvasia
s and vice versa,
and so classifying grape varieties as a Malvasia
based on their aromatic profi le is impossible.
Winemaking too can greatly alter how a
Malvasia
wine tastes. For example, yeasts
metabolize linalool with great diffi culty, but
have an easier time with geraniol, in part trans-
forming it into citronellol. Since Malvasia
wines are characterized most often by a promi-
nent geraniol content, it follows that alcoholic
fermentation can have bigger consequences on
the aromas of
Malvasia
than on
Moscato
wines:
world-famous winemaker and university pro-
fessor Donato Lanati told me that a good wine-
maker, when working with
Malvasia
grapes,
will try to minimize the consumption of gera-
niol while maximizing production of citronel-
lol, another potent aroma molecule. Therefore,
a malvasia that smells strongly of roses (and it
should) is in part also the result of the wine-
maker consciously avoiding the loss of that
defi ning varietal aroma. The presence of these
aromatic molecules explains why many
Malva-
sia
wines are both sweet and fi zzy. Sugars
diminish the solubility of aromas in liquids
(wine, in this case) consequently increasing
their concentration in the volatile (or gaseous)
fraction, making the wine more aromatically
intense and fragrant. Carbon dioxide also helps
transport aroma molecules into the volatile
fraction and this further intensifi es the aromas
