Historic Malvasia is Professor Marcello Saija history professor in the faculty of political science at the University of Messina. He devoted all his studies to reconstruct the history of this variety. I’m sorry, but the Greeks have nothing to do.
Malvasia of which so much talk about the Romans is not that of Lipari. According Saija the real story is another, connected to the worship of Santa Marina Salina which has origins in 1622 with the construction of a small chapel dedicated to the Blessed. Populations Venetian chased by the Turks took refuge on these islands, taking with him the devotion to this icon and the rooted Malvasia.
This grape has given Salina beautiful nineteenth century: trafficking by sea with half the world, a fleet of more than a hundred sailing ships, a population of more than 9,000 inhabitants. The tragedy, however, was around the corner.
In 1889 phylloxera destroyed the vineyards in 18 months. Fifty years have not been enough to start over. The first to put in place systems and market new Malvasia Nino was the Slave in the ’30s.