Monemvasia Winery Tsimbidi

The Tsimbidi family founded this winery in 1997 with one clear purpose: to bring Malvasia back to the town that gave it its name.

The history is remarkable. Monemvasia is a fortified rock off the Laconian coast, and in the Middle Ages it was the shipping point for a sweet wine traded across Europe. The Venetians called the town Malvasia, and the wine took that name with it wherever it went, which is why Malvasia appears today as a grape name from Italy to Madeira to the Canaries. For three centuries from the twelfth it was among the most prized wines in Europe. Then the trade collapsed and the wine disappeared entirely.

What the family revived is Monemvasios Oinos, made from Monemvasia and Kydonitsa grapes sun-dried after picking, fermented and aged for years. Alongside it they make dry whites and reds from the same Laconian varieties. Kydonitsa takes its name from the Greek for quince and had itself dwindled almost to nothing.