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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Arneis wines from Malvira winery in the Roero

I thought it would be fun to compare one grape, Arneis, but in two different styles, a still white wine and a dessert style. Both of these wines are from the winery, Azienda Agricola Malvira, located in the Roero, a town in the northwestern region of Italy in Piedmont. Two brothers, Massimo and Roberto Damonte, run the vineyard and winery that they took over from their father Giuseppe that began production in the 1950's. Their winery produces about 380,000 bottles a year on about 103 acres.
Map Roero & Langhe regions of Piedmont
Compliments of www.langhevini.it


malvira arneis roero wine from piedmontThe white wine I tasted was a 2012 Malvira Roero Arneis. This is their Arneis that comes from multiple vineyard sites, where some of the other Arneis are single vineyard. It's made of 100% Arneis and is fermented in stainless steel for 4-8 months. It was a light wine with acidity up front, but aromatic fruit in the middle. 

malvira renesium arneis wineThe other wine was a dessert style, Malvira Renesium Arneis, that is sourced from their Trinita vineyard and is made up of 90% arneis and 10% other aromatic grapes. The difference between this and the other is that the grapes for the dessert wine were affected with botrytis, also having a form called noble rot, which is a beneficial fungus that grows on the grapes. It takes place drier conditions take place after wet weather. Botrytis starts to remove the water within the grapes, therefore making them more concentrated. In addition, this wine was aged for 2 years in french oak. It had that nice honeysuckle taste that is typical of botrytis affected grapes.



Drinking this Arneis reminded me of the time that I had a private tour set up through Martignetti's to meet with the owner, Matteo Ascheri, of the Ascheri winery in Bra, Piedmont. I think that is a great place to pick up next time so stay tuned of some great pictures and my meeting with Matteo and his winemaker Giuliano.



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