sign to sell wine, Malvasia vineyard, Salina, Eolian Islands, Italy vente de vins a la propriete, vignoble de Malvoisie, Salina, Iles Eoliennes, Italie . (Photo by JARRY/TRIPELON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The Mystery Behind The Malvasia Name
If you have spent time around the Mediterranean, there is a good chance you have already met Malvasia.
You may have tasted it in Madeira as Malmsey, rich and sweet. You may have encountered it in Istria as a dry, mineral white. You may have found it in Sicily, Catalonia, Greece, the Canary Islands, or somewhere else entirely. But what you may not realize is that these wines do not necessarily come from the same grape. In many cases, they do not.
That is part of the mystery and the myth of Malvasia.
From Malvasia Wine Trade To Cultural Heritage
For Sotiris Bolis, Project Manager of the Malvasia Myth project and Artistic Director of the Malvasia Festival Monemvasia, that history became a mission.
“I was so excited by the idea that I said, ‘I can design and run the project without any fee. All I want is to sign the final application for the inscription of Malvasia on UNESCO’s international list of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Bolis said.
Drinking Malvasian wine in Greece. Liebig card, Wine (French: Le Vin), 1895. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
Getty Images
The Malvasia Myth project began in 2019. Since then, Bolis and the project’s partners have worked to build an international framework connecting Malvasia-producing regions and countries. In February 2026, “Sun-dried Malvasia wine of Monemvasia, Crete and Paros” was inscribed in Greece’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, an important step toward the larger UNESCO ambition.
The historical path of Malvasia helps explain why that ambition matters.
As Bolis explained, Malvasia’s story reaches back to Monemvasia, the fortified Greek coastal town whose name the Venetians shortened to Malvasia. By the thirteenth century, the wine had become one of the Mediterranean’s great commercial successes: a sweet, sun-dried wine made from local white grapes rather than from one fixed “Malvasia” variety.
For Bolis, that distinction is central to the entire story.
grape harvest, Malvasia vineyard, Salina, Eolian Islands, Italy vendange, vignoble de Malvoisie, Salina, Iles Eoliennes, Italie . (Photo by JARRY/TRIPELON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
“More than just a grape or a wine, it is a wine brand name more than eight centuries old, perhaps the oldest still in existence, and certainly one of the most intriguing, mysterious,” Bolis said.
He learned the wine’s history. During the Middle Ages, Venetian and Genoese merchants sought larger, more secure sources of production for what was by then a popular wine.
“More than just a grape or a wine, [Malvasia] is a wine brand name more than eight centuries old.”
Sotiris Bolis
Monemvasia’s position had become increasingly vulnerable, and by the fourteenth century, production shifted substantially to Venetian-controlled Crete, where the wine trade could expand under more favorable conditions. There, Cretan producers used local varieties, not the same grapes grown around Monemvasia, to make a similar sweet, sun-dried wine. Over time, that Cretan version became so successful that it was treated almost as the original itself.
The story did not stop in Crete. As the name spread through Venetian trade networks, producers near Venice, including areas such as Emilia-Romagna and Istria, began making wines called Malvasia.
Within Venice, the word malvasia became the name for high quality white wine generally, and wine shops were called malvasie (the plural of malvasia). From there, the name moved across the Mediterranean and beyond.
“Every Malvasia-producing region offers its own expression of Malvasia wine, revealing a different piece of the same fascinating story. Every stop is a chapter in a Mediterranean epic.”
Sotiris Bolis
MONEMVASIA, GREECE – AUGUST 10: Aerial view of Fortress town of Monemvasia on August 10, 2020 in Laconia, Greece. (Photo by Athanasios Gioumpasis/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesMany Malvasia Wines, One Malvasia Myth
In Madeira, Malvasia became Malmsey, the richest and sweetest of Madeira’s classic styles. Its sweetness is often cut by the acidity the island wines are famous for, and the savory complexity that comes from heat, oxidation, and time. Here, Malvasia is not a single grape but a Madeira family name associated with varieties such as Malvasia Cândida, Malvasia Cândida Roxa, and Malvasia de São Jorge.
In Sicily’s Aeolian Islands, Malvasia delle Lipari is traditionally made as a sweet wine from dried grapes. The DOC version draws primarily on Malvasia di Lipari, but adds a small portion of Corinto Nero. It is another reminder that Malvasia’s history followed islands and ports.
And in Istria, especially Croatian Istria but also Dubrovnik and across the borderlands of Slovenia and northeastern Italy, Malvasia takes a very different form. Here, Malvazija Istarska is usually dry, mineral, and distinctly Adriatic — not a relic of sweetness.
Bunch of Malvasia grapes, Cellino San Marco, Apulia, Italy.
De Agostini via Getty Images
That is why Malvasia today is really a family of borrowed names. Most modern Malvasia wines today are dry, single-varietal wines, far removed from the original sweet, sun-dried blend of Monemvasia. Many of the grapes carrying the Malvasia name are not even genetically related to one another.
“What, then, is Malvasia, other than just a name used in many parts of the world?” Bolis asked.
“It is a living myth, carrying a long history, a shared heritage, and a common root. Every Malvasia producer today knows and feels that they are creating more than just a wine, they are crafting something truly special. Connected by a centuries-old legacy and the same legendary origins, they all share the same myth and the same journey, even if they walk different paths.”
Discover Some of the Malvasia Myth Project’s Malvasia Routes:
GREECE: Monemvasia, Crete, Cyclades islands
ITALY: Venice, Emilia-Romagna (Parma, Piacenza), Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Salina), Sardinia, Trieste – Friuli, Rome – Lazio, Lecce – Puglia, Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria, Calabria, Basilicata
CROATIA: Istria, Dubrovnik, Split
SLOVENIA: Slovenian Istria – Piran and the Coast, Vipava Valley
SPAIN: Canary Islands (Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria), Barcelona – Sitges, Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca), Zamora – Toro, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra
PORTUGAL: Madeira, Azores, Lisbon, Douro Valley, Dão, Beira Interior, Trás-os-Montes, Lamego – Távora-Varosa, Aveiro, Coimbra, Bairrada, Santarém – Tejo
FRANCE: Corsica, Roussillon
Dining and Cooking