The Malvasia grapevines are a large group of varieties having several morphological differences between but indicated with the same names because in the middle ages they were used to produce, aromatic wines with similar characteristics often with high alcohol content and sometimes residual sugars. The name derives from the Greek port of Monemvasia, used by the Venetians from the 11th century to export wine into Europe. It is believed that the grape is native to the Chianti area where it is cultivated for centuries and it also colled as “Malvasia bianca lunga del Chianti” for his elongated cluster. Trinci (1726) argues that the merit of this variety is to give wine with a color "beautiful, sweet-smelling and witty". Micheli (1679) report several Malvasia: the ‘Malvagia grossa di Castello’ (aromatic), the ‘Malvagia nera’ and ‘Malvagia piccola lunga’ (which corresponds to the Malvasia here decribed) which he describes in this way: "Vitis parvo ac densiore bótro, acinis parvis ovalis flavescentibus, dulcibus" (dictionary of Italian Botanist Targioni Tozzetti). Lastri (1797) and Trinci (1726) indicated the ‘Malvagia’ and ’Malvagia bianca‘, and Villifranchi (1773) report: "the Malvasia wine from light yellow, sweet, sweet, humorous and body collection". These information are also referred to Acerbi (1825). In addition to the description of Molon (1906) and Castellini (1930) recalled from Dalmasso (1932) e De Astis (1937) there is the description of of Breviglieri and Casini (1964) in which they reported many bibliographic citations. It has been recently promoted a particular biotype named “Malvasia  of Montegonzi” cultivated in the province of Arezzo (Storchi et al., 2007), and it was also reported that i“Malvasia Bianca” is a  parent, with Prosecco tondo, of the variety ‘Vitouska’ (Crespan et al., 2007) cultivated in the northern east if Italy and western Slovenia.

Diffusione

The most widely used area has always been the Tuscany where it was used for the production of Chianti wine in accordance with the formula proposed by Baron Ricasoli. For its high productivity it is grown also in other regions like Veneto, Emilia-romagna, Latium, Basilicata and Sicily, while his presence in the north east of Italy and Western Slovenia is assumed since crossing with ‘Prosecco Tondo’ produced the local variety ‘Vitouska’.
Its cultivation has decreased considerably in recent years, in Tuscany ranged from 4,700 ha in 1990 to current 726 ha, since it has been reduced its use in the production of Chianti and Chianti Classico, and in the production of white wines are preferred less productive varieties with greater aromatic content.

Caratteristiche agronomiche

The bud break is rather late, time of ripening takes place almost simultaneously with Trebbiano toscano. The vigour and productivity are high, the bunch is winged, great compactness and stretched. The grape is very susceptible to mildew so as it was replaced by other varieties. The training system is usually a vertical trellis with Guyot pruning.

Due to its high production, it provides moderate alcohol content wines rather neutral and balanced, finding use in blend with other varieties. In Tuscany was mainly used with Trebbiano toscano to produce most of the white wines and the  ‘Vin Sant’o. Starting from years 80 of last century the variety was replaced by less productive international grapevine provided by primary aroma (Chardonnay, Pinot b. and Gris, Sauvignon, Riesling, Manzoni and Viognier).
The variety is used for the production of PDO and PGI wines in the regions Abruzzo, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Puglia, Tuscany and Umbria including: ‘Chianti’ (max 10%), ‘Chianti Classico’ (max 6%), “Colli Lucchesi”, “San Gimignano”, “Bianco dell’Empolese”, “Orvieto”, “Verdicchio”, “Leveranno” and several denominations of ‘Vin Santo’ in Tuscany.