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.
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| Compliments of www.langhevini.it |
The 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. 
The 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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