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Wine of the week: Kenneth Volk Vineyards Malvasia Bianco 2007
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Winemaker Ken Volk in his winery's barrel room (courtesy photo)
Malvasia Bianco is a grape you don't hear much about anymore. The grape variety is said to have originated in ancient Greece and cuttings were carried from those vineyards by shipping fleets to other Mediterranean ports, including Venice, where is was planted in the surrounding country side. Today, malvasia still thrives in Italy and is made into a white wine, in regions as diverse as Basilicata and Piedmont, though it is most widely cultivated in Friuli, directly north of Veneto.
In California, only around two thousand acres still exist, mostly grown in the hot San Joaquin Valley, for blending away into box or jug wines. Fortunately Ken Volk is a vintner that doesn't want a little bit of grape growing history to slip away and he buys these grapes from San Bernabe Vineyard and bottles an individualistic malvasia bianco on its own. Ken Volk is most widely known as the founder and ex-major domo of Wild Horse Winery in Paso Robles. After that winery grew too large, he sold it to corporate interests. He then downsized to a smaller facility, the old Byron Winery in the northeast corner of Santa Barbara County, and reinvented himself as Kenneth Volk Vineyards.
Volk says the trick with malvasia bianco is to minimize the bitterness that can leach out from the grape's thick skins. So the grapes are immediately chilled upon picking, whole cluster pressed and then fermented in both temperature controlled stainless steel and some small barrels. The aromatics of his malvasia bianco almost jump out of the glass: honeysuckle, lychee nut, and white florals. Lovely flavors, as well, including peach, apricot, lychee nut and a kind of canned fruit cocktail effect: think Carmen Miranda with a fruit basket on her head. In the summer, folks are always looking for a sweet wine and this one fills the bill; it's just off dry, crossing the sweetness perception threshold, although the wine is so seamlessly made, it's hard to tell whether the sweetness comes from just the ripe grapes or the residual sugar.
But when you get this white wine in your glass, none of the technical stuff really matters. The Kenneth Volk Vineyards malvasia bianco is juicy, jumpy, fruity, and completely refreshing to serve as a stand alone aperitif for those warm days when you're gathered around the patio grill or the pool.
Available at Gomer's Midtown for a shade under $20.
See previous wine of the week: Reinares Tinto 2007.
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