2023 Malvasia Bianca

Philosophy
Between the 8th and 15th centuries, Venetian traders dominated the Mediterranean and heavily promoted Malvasia wine. Due to its popularity, copycat wines made from similar varieties were all referred to as Malvasia, even if they were genetically unrelated. We planted our Malvasia vines after getting the clones from California, thinking that they originated from the Friuli region of Northeastern Italy. Upon further research, Winemaker Sean O’Keefe discovered that these clones actually originated from the Northwestern Italian Piedmont region and were brought over roughly a century ago by Piedmontese immigrants who erroneously called their grapes Malvasia Bianca—so of course the US government did too. Thanks to modern genetic testing, we now know our vines are actually Malvasia Moscata, though we still refer to them by their legal name: Malvasia Bianca. Malvasia Moscata is currently only grown in Piedmont and the United States.

Flavor Notes
Lush ruby red grapefruit on the nose leads to lemon verbena and tropical fruit flavors. A delicate effervescence from cold bottling under a screw cap livens up the palate like a Vinho Verde. Slight skin contact brings textural quality to this fresh, aromatic wine. 

Pairings
Sweet and sour pork, pad thai, sushi with ginger, pho, pork tacos with tomatillos, any seafood, charcuterie boards with ham and cheese.

Vinification
On October 3rd, 2023 we harvested Sauvignon Blanc Clone 01 from Grishaw Vineyard. The grapes were whole cluster pressed into a stainless steel tank to ferment. On October 29th we harvested Malvasia Bianca from both Neason and Grishaw Vineyards. The grapes were destemmed and placed into open top bins for 48 hours of skin contact with torulaspora yeast added as a bioprotectant. On October 31st the Malvasia was pressed into a stainless steel tank, with no additional yeast added besides the initial torulaspora. On November 27th fermentation was complete and the wine was racked to a new tank and blended with the Sauvignon Blanc. On December 19th the tank cooled and a small amount of SO2 was added to preserve a little residual sugar and to keep the CO2 in solution for a “Vinho Verde” style of wine. On June 1st, 2024 a CO2 tank was attached to the fermenter tank in order to provide counterpressure and maintain the light sparkling character. The wine was sterile filtered on August 2nd with the CO2 still maintained. On August 13th the finished wine was bottled cold under a screw cap, preserving bubbles.

Cellaring
This wine is ready to drink now and will taste best through 2028.