Malvasia A BUYER'S GUIDE

If ever a grape was hard to pin down, it'd be Malvasia. Indeed it’s not even a single grape variety. In all of its many varied, and often completely unrelated guises, it has been the mainstay of popular wine styles across the centuries. Our expert takes a closer look...

- CAROLINE GILBY MW

It seems that everywhere you turn in the wine world, you'll find a grape called Malvasia according to the ultimate scientific grapevine database VIVC.de, there are as many as 290 of them. And many are delicious, so are definitely worth exploring.

The name 'Malvasia' is widespread across the Mediterranean basin and into the Atlantic as far as Madeira and the Canary Islands, and it would be logical to assume there's a family connection. However, in these days of DNA analysis, there are no dark family secrets and scientists have worked out that most grapes going by the name Malvasia are unrelated to each other - and in many cases, the name has been attached to other grapes entirely. The mystery is why Malvasia became such a popular name and where it came from.

CENTURIES OF HISTORY

There are several colourful historical tales about Malvasia. In Richard III, first published in 1597, Shakespeare refers to the Duke of Clarence being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine (the name for the sweetest Malvasia wine from Madeira). In 1498, Leonardo da Vinci had a small vineyard of 16 rows of vines in Milan granted to him by Duke Ludovico Maria 'Il Moro' Sforza, as a reward for his works as he was completing The Last Supper. Genetic analysis of traces of vine roots suggests that the vines were Malvasia di Candia Aromatica - the vineyard has been replanted with Malvasia and makes wine again today.

But written history goes back much further, to 1214, when there is a reference to Malvasia wine being served 'in abundance' at a church delegation in Constantinople, so it was already likely to have been a prestigious wine by then.