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THE WINE OF THE VOLCANOES: MALVASIA WINE

31Jan

Beautiful plant with fragrant fruit that produces a rich, flavorful nectar that tastes of velvet and apricot, malvasia was also called “Gods’ nectar”. Its grape is imported by the first Greek colonists around 588 BC into the island of Salina, where the well ventilated soil of volcanic origin is placed at three hundred meters above the sea level. Its name comes from the port of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese, a promontory of great importance on the commercial routes between East and West, which was long fought over in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Turks and Venetians.

It is even mentioned in Shakespeare’s Richard III, when the King orders his brother to be killed by drowning him in a tub of Malvasia. Monemvasia became Greek in 1821, and its wine travelled from one country to the next, conquering palates as it went, so much so that in Venice malvasia became the term for an inn or shop where wine was served. The more requests came from the British soldiers who demanded the famous Aeolian wine on the boards of British officers as a fine dessert wine. In 1890 Guy de Maupassant stopped in Salina and was enchanted by the “wine of the volcanoes”, as he called it, “rich, sweet and golden.”

The wine was exported for a long time along the coasts of the Mediterranean from the merchant fleets of the island, but at the end of the last century phylloxera destroyed most of the vineyards ending the illusions of the islanders and involving a period of stasis. Fortunately in the second half of the twentieth century it was again resumed by producing some growers who have encouraged the production proposing this delicate wine that in 1973 gained D.O.C. status.

We propose to you a simple and delicate recipe that will conquer your palate.

gelatina malvasia

MALVASIA JELLY

Ingredients – 1 litre of Malvasia, 15g isinglass

Soak the isinglass. In a saucepan, heat half the Malvasia. Once the isinglass is soft, squeeze out the water and add to the hot Malvasia (do not boil). Stir for a few minutes to melt the isinglass into the wine. Add the remaining Malvasia and, once the mixture is cool, refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Garnish with pieces of fruit and fresh mint leaves.

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