WTI Magazine #64    2015 July, 10
Author : Jennifer Gentile Martin for www.vinotravelsitaly.com      Translation by:

This time I'm gonna on the Italian white grape from Piedmont, Arneis: I just had the opportunity to meet one of the charming owners and winemaker, Roberto Damonte, of the Malvira winery in the Roero of Piedmont. The Malvira winery began in the 1950's when Roberto's father started the winery. The name stems from the word "mal" meaning badly and "vira" meaning situated.

The winery used to be north facing, obviously being a bad situation for a winery as the most ideal conditions for grape growing are south facing.
Roberto and his brother Massimo took over the winery in 1974 and their mission was to focus more on quality than the quantity of wines that were being produced previously. Malvira produces organic wines on 104 acres across 6 vineyard sites with about 380,000 annually.

Malvira produce a variety of Italian grapes including barbera, nebbiolo, birbet and favorita, but its their arneis that they pride themselves on. Their arneis vines are 40-45 years of age,which lend to lower yields with higher quality grapes. The arneis grape itself translates to "little rascal". Fortunately arneis was saved and is one of the most widely planted white grapes in Piedmont as it was facing extinction in the 20th century.

Nebbiolo, Arneis, Barbera wines of Malvira wineryThe two arneis wines I sampled from Malvira were the the 2012 Malvira Roero Arneis and the 2009 Malvira Roero Arneis Trinita. The '12 Malvira Roero Arneis DOCG is a blend of the different vineyard sites of the Malvira winery that is aged 4-8 months in stainless steel. The '09 Malvira Vigna Trinita DOCG is a single vineyard that is aged 90% in stainless steel for 6 months with 10% of the juice aged in French oak for 6 months. My personal preference was for the 2012 Malvira Roero Arneis as I appreciated the crisp, clean, ripe fruit with minerality opposed to the Trinita, named after the small church at the top of the vineyard, that had a hint of oak and more tropical flavors.

The Roero
The Roero is located in the southern part of Piedmont known as the Langhe, but is further within the Cuneo province. According to Malvira's website the Roero is named after the Conti-Roero family that lived there in the 14th century. What's unique about the Roero is that prior to 1000 A.D. this area of Piedmont was covered by the sea so it's not uncommon to come across sea fossils from ancient seabeds within the vineyards themselves.