Malvasia di Sardegna
The aromatic Malvasia behind Malvasia di Bosa, Sardinia’s flor-aged white.
Malvasia di Sardegna is a grape variety most associated in Italy with Cagliari, Malvasia di Bosa, Marmilla and Nurra.
Malvasia di Sardegna is very probably the same grape as Greco Bianco, and the full guide lives on that page. This is the least settled of the identities recorded on this site, and the reasons are worth stating rather than glossing over.
What the research found A 2006 study examining fifteen SSR loci concluded that Malvasia di Lipari, Malvasia di Sardegna, Malvasía di Sitges, Greco Bianco di Gerace and Croatia’s Malvasia Dubrovačka are one and the same variety. The ampelographic assessments, made independently by different experts, agreed. It is an impressive piece of work and the strongest evidence available.
Why it is still disputed The National Registry does not yet recognise the identity. Calabrian producers do not accept that their Greco Bianco is Malvasia di Lipari. And there is a plausible technical explanation for the disagreement: every Malvasia di Lipari vine studied on the islands was found to carry either fanleaf or leaf roll virus, which can change a vine’s appearance enough to make identical grapes look like different ones.
The practical point Even if the vine is one, the wines are not. Malvasia di Bosa, on Sardinia’s west coast, is aged oxidatively under a veil of flor and finishes somewhere near a dry Sherry, in the same family as Vernaccia di Oristano. Greco di Bianco, in Calabria, is an air-dried sweet passito. Nothing about drinking one prepares you for the other.
For origins, the genetic argument in full and the Calabrian wines, see Greco Bianco.