Malvasia bianca lunga: general information

general information managed by Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agro-ambientali (DiSAAA-a) - Università di Pisa
How to cite this source D’Onofrio C., Scalabrelli G., 2015. Malvasia bianca lunga. In: Italian Vitis Database, www.vitisdb.it, ISSN 2282-006X
botanical information
name
Malvasia bianca lunga
type of origin
spontanea
specie
Vitis vinifera
variety group
Malvasie
genera
Vitis
subspecie
sativa
variety for
wine
code
IVD-var_3
registration
Registered in the National Catalogue
yes
code
132
Official name
MALVASIA BIANCA LUNGA B.
synonyms
official synonyms (3)
synonyms reported in the National Catalogue
  • Malvoisier
  • Malvoisie
  • Malvasia
documented synonyms (1)
synonyms documented by the Istitution that appear with the eventual support of the literature
released clones (7)
images
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  • leaf
    leaf
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Historical references

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.

distribution & variation

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.

 

Tuscany

DOC/DOCG

Other wines

Total

 

Italy

Area (ha)

1982

3541

3531

7072

 

1970

14458

1990

 

 

4700

 

1982

11460

2000

932

1034

1965

 

1990

 

2008

 

 

726

 

2000

4741

 

 

 

 

 

2010

1608

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.

technological use

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.

bibliographies (10)
authors year title journal citation
Acerbi G. 1825 Delle viti italiane, ossia materiali per servire alla classificazione, monografica e sinonimia, preceduti dal tentativo di una classificazione delle viti. Vol. I -Ed. G. Silvestri - Milano
Breviglieri N., Casini E. 1964 Malvasia bianca lunga Ministero dell’Agricoltura e delle Foreste - Principali vitigni da vino coltivati in Italia - Volume III
Castellini A. 1930 I nostri vitigni classici Firenze - G. Ramella
Crespan M., Crespan G., Giannetto S., Meneghetti S., Costacurta A. 2007 'Vitouska' is the progeny of 'Prosecco tondo' and 'Malvasia bianca lunga'. Vitis 46 (4), 192–194
D’Onofrio C., Scalabrelli G., De Lorenzis G., Palazzi C. 2008 Genotipizzazione di accensioni di Malvasia a bacca nera, rosa e bianca Rivista di Viticoltura e di Enologia n. 2-3-4: 371-383
Micheli P. A. 1679 Manoscritti 1679-1737 - Enumeratio quarundam plantarum sibi per Italiam et Germaniam observatorum in acta Turnefortii metodum dispositarum. Tom. VIII, M.S., s.d., (b). (Inv. Istituto di Botanica 2646).
Molon G. 1906 Ampelografia. vol. II - Hoepli, Milano.
Storchi P., A.B., Armanni 2007 Malvagia di Montegonzi. Il germoplasma toscano 11. 2 Vitigni ad uva bianca. ARSIA: 106-110.
Trinci C. 1726 L'Agricoltore sperimentato, ovvero regole generali sopra l'agricoltura, coltivazione delle viti, degli alberi, ecc. Marescandoli, Lucca, 1726 - Venezia, 1778.
Villifranchi G. C. 1773 Enologia toscana o sui memoria sopra i vini ed in specie toscani Cambiagi Ed., Firenze.
updated at 2015-07-18 08:57:03 (7 years ago)