Somebody may remember him as the winner of the Trophy Pompeo Molmenti at Italia in Rosa in Moniga del Garda, a few years ago, with an unknown Chiaretto that rose as a surprise amongst many other more famous labels. Someone else will probably have already tasted his Lugana San Giacomo (which has won the Golden Star in the Guida ai Vini Buoni d’Italia). Daniele Malavasi is a bit of an outsider in the Garda wine world: to the point that these days among its projects is none other than the launch of a Lambrusco.
“I’m originally from Sermide, near Mantova, and my grandfather used to produce Lambrusco it when I was little kid and he kept me with him in the fields for the harvest – he says -. Now I’m planning to start producing it in the family estate that I kept near Mantova, ten hectares with a building that I would soon like to transform into a winery. I have already chosen the bottle and also the name: it will be called Ciocapiat. I like this challenge: Lambrusco is one of the best selling wines in the world, I’d like to interpret it in my own version of course focusing on quality “.
Waiting for future developments, Malavasi has already his work to do on Garda, where he moved in 2006: he was then working as an engineer and made special surveying for monuments, as well as being active in real estate, but the meeting with Franco Tiraboschi, owner of the farm Ca ‘Lojera Sirmione, did awaken in him the old passion for wine. And so he leased 10 hectares of the estate La Bolina in Gavardo, where he produced the famous Chiaretto Rosa del Lago that in 2013 won the aforementioned Molmenti Prize in Moniga. Then in 2011 he acquired an estate in Pozzolengo entering the world of Lugana.
“We have about ten hectares in total between ownership and rent – explains -. In 2011 we started to produce. We also have a hectare of Petit Verdot, a grape that’s really rare on Garda, from which we have produced a red wine called Mulinero: a project made in collaboration with the agriturismo Moscatello in Pozzolengo, which is becoming famous as the chef Lorenzo Bernardini is a former pupil of Gualtiero Marchesi . It will have a 20% share of Cabernet and Merlot grapes and we will launch it this year. I think I can say it will be such a unique thing for this area.”
Malavasi currently produces about 100,000 bottles (besides the two Lugana there are also the Rosa, Rosso and Bianco del Lago), sold 80% abroad, mainly in Germany and Switzerland. “But we are also present in some restaurants and major hotels of Lake Garda – explains Daniele -. It’s important to be in these places that represent a prestigious business card for us. And then we also have a wine selling point in Sermide, where I was born. I don’t want to cut the link to my roots…. waiting for the Lambrusco, which could be ready between 2016 and 2017 “.
The bottle
It’s a very special Lugana, the San Giacomo, who immediately seems to have picked up the support expected from Daniele Malavasi, following in this Garda adventure by winemaker Franco Bernabei team (and especially by his son Matteo). Everything for this wine starts with the selection of the best grapes from the Pozzolengo vineyards, with steel fermentation and aging in American oak barrels. “This last one is a particular choice born from the desire to connote the wine with a special touch: and I must say that the interest charged comforted me on the positive character of this decision. ” With at least two years of aging before arriving on the market, San Giacomo is an important Lugana, with a sumptuous profile, with rounded edges, soft character but well balanced by a refreshing acidity, in the wake of the Brolettino myth but able nonetheless to stand on its own legs.
Leave a Comment