Malbo Gentile wine guide
Malbo Gentile is a red grape variety cultivated for centuries in Emilia-Romagna, in the hilly area that goes from Modena and Reggio to Brisighella, in the province of Ravenna. The wine obtained from this grape variety has an aggressive character, is tannic, robust, full of ardor and austerity and has always been used as a blending grape to give strength to Emilian Lambrusco ephebic, acidic but not very structured by nature. Often in Reggio Emilia, it is also found in blend with the sinuous and sensual Ancellotta, as in the case of Neroduva from the Storchi winery, a dry passito wine of unprecedented charm.
Today Malbo Gentile is experiencing a second youth or rather as an irreplaceable gregarious, it is also emerging as a soloist, because many winemakers, especially those who have vineyards in the high hills, have had excellent results. Of course, it is a wine with thundering tannins, epic structure, excellent polyphenolic charge and great severity, which deserves years of aging, especially in the bottle, but the results are excellent, both for dry Malbo Gentile wines and sweet passito wines. It is a wine that lends itself to aging that easily reaches twenty years, it is not a soft and mature wine that deflates in ten years, on the contrary, it is when the ten or so that it begins to open up. Obviously for commercial reasons, sensitivity and difficulty of use there are not many Emilian-Romagna vignerons who have thrown themselves into this adventure, but just to name one, who is doing an excellent job, Babini, from the Vigne dei Boschi winery, produces some wines of incredible fabric (and thickness).
History of the Malbo Gentile grape
It is one of the most important grape varieties of the Emilia Romagna region that has been cultivated for centuries, but paradoxically there is nothing of it. Written sources do not mention it in past centuries, its origin is almost obscure, although it is one of the pillars of Emilian enology. There are a couple of legends about Malbo: the first tells of an elusive Genoese emigrant who allegedly brought him from California in the last years of the nineteenth century. Others see in the name Malbo assonance with the French Malbec and although both are wines with a grumpy and austere personality, the ampelographic studies of numerous scholars have not found genetic links between the two grape varieties.
Organoleptic characteristics of Malbo Gentile wine
It is a grape that ripens towards the end of September, the clusters are loose, not too large in the shape of a pyramid, with perfectly round grapes, very rich in pigments, anthocyanins and polyphenols, but also sugars.
The color is purple, tending to ruby and then brick over the years, but it is dense and colorful. The bouquet is distinctly fruity, with violets, fleshy fruit, juniper, walnuts, herbaceous and undergrowth and cinchona references.
On the palate, it is tannic, vigorous, pulpy, but never too ripe, it has a good balance between acidity and warmth. The taste is dry, earthy, clear due to the tannins that stretch it and make it travel at a great pace, even the flavors are quite green and must be aged for several years.
Also excellent are the sweet wines based on Malbo gentile, produced with the drying of the grapes. In this case, the sweetness and aromatic sumptuousness is well balanced by a vigorous tannin that is lost in spicy and jelly tones.
The best Malbo Gentile
As mentioned, Babini from Vigna dei Boschi produces a stellar Malbo called Borgo Stignani, of which the 2004 vintage is still splendid, but also Danny Cipolla’s Mistral 315 is excellent and very typical.
Malbo Gentile Food Pairings
Being a structured and tannic wine try to combine succulent dishes, meat-based preparations. Excellent with veal with tuna sauce, gnocchi with meat sauce, chicken curry, ribs with barbecue sauce, baked lasagna, roast beef, pulled pork, empanadas, hamburgers, Wellington-style fillet.