A special day at the Vigne del Malina winery

Ciao,

a few weeks ago, Elisa and I went to discover the Vigne del Malina winery near Remanzacco in the province of Udine. An incredible experience in a truly unique environment. 

The Winery

The estate includes a wonderful villa where the owners live and two hundred hectares of land, but there are only ten hectares of vineyards. Looking at the estate from above, you can see how the two streams, the Malina and the Ellero, which surround the property have designed a glass… it almost seems like it was done on purpose, and perhaps it is! 

The winemaking history of Vigne del Malina began in 2007 when the owners decided to renovate the cellar and start making wine. In previous years, the grapes were sold to other producers. 

Vigne del Malina has been a certified organic winery since 2015 and the first wine placed on the market with the famous green leaf is 2018 vintage. Today this company produces three white wines, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and, Pinot Grigio. Three red wines, Merlot, Cabernet, and Refosco. Then there is a crazy wine that is produced, in very small quantities, only in the years when the grapes are at their best, Pinot Grigio Ramato. It has recently also been added a rosé, which is produced with Merlot grapes wine made in white; originally it was created for the American market but it is slowly gaining ground in Italy too.

The winery philosophy

As I already told you, Vigne del Malina has been certified organic since 2015. The winery focuses everything on the raw material, the grapes. All activities in the vineyard are done by hand. They told us that the machines enter the vineyard only to cut the grass in the rows. On the red wine vines, the bunches are also thinned out, and generally, cut by half. This choice was made to allow the perfect rapine of the buncher left on the plant.

Here there is only one rule: if the grapes are not of quality the wine is not made. It happened due to a late frost and unexpected rains during the harvest period, the grapes rotted, and the wine was not made; And what happens when the grapes do not reach the winery standards? They are sold to other producers who also take care of the harvest. 

The wines

Vigne del Malina produces around 40,000 bottles a year and, since the offer is small but the demand is high, all the bottles are on assignment. 

The harvest is manual, the grapes are destemmed with a machine. The white wines immediately enter a coil that cools the grapes. The Chardonnay and Sauvignon are decanted into a tank called “Ganymede” and left there for one night. The tank has a funnel inside which uses the carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation to mix the pomace. This step is used to extract all the precious substances available on the peel. If you want to learn more about “Ganymede”, I leave here the link to an article I found that perfectly explains how this step works; ganimede.com. 

The next step is soft pressing and moving to steel for winemaking and initial refinement. In the August following the harvest (about a year after the harvest itself), the wine is bottled and left to rest for a few years. How many exactly? It depends on the vintage and the type of wine. In short, it doesn’t go on the market until it’s ready. 

The reds, on the other hand, are wine made in steel, and in the February following the harvest moved to barrels where they rest for at least three years. The barrels are all made of French oak. They are not replaced after the second or third passage because the winery’s intent is not to produce wine that “tastes” like wood but that rests in the wood. In the barrel room, there are barrels of various sizes but this too is not important because the wine is assembled all together before being bottled.

 In the barrel room, there is a constant humidity of 80% and a fixed temperature of 18 degrees in summer and 12 in winter. Another interesting thing I discovered, obviously the barrels need to be refilled regularly, in winter every two weeks and in summer once a month. Every year the winery needs about five hectoliters of wine to top up the barrels! 

The Pinot Grigio Ramato

Special mention for the Pinot Grigio Ramato. average production of 3000 bottles per year, only in years where the grapes are exceptional. To help you understand, from 2007 to today this wine has only been produced in seven vintages.

The winemaking starts with a ten-day maceration on the skins which gives the wine that special orange color. Then after winemaking, it is moved to the barrel room where it rests in the barrels for two years.

During our visit, we had the honor of tasting all the wines and, I can confirm while testing the wine, you can perceive their quality.

As mentioned, the wines are all assigned; at the moment, we have the last bottles of Pinot Grigio Ramato 2016 vintage. We hope to receive the new vintages soon but, in the meantime, get at least one bottle of those available.

During our visit, we had a chat with Simone; I leave you the link below if you want to listen to what he told us.. Vigne del Malina

ciao

Monica