Look, Mama, no oak! – Malìa Malvasia Nera

When I was lamenting the fact that I saw too little originality in some of the wines from Puglia that I tasted during the Radici del Sud event last June, I was immediately slapped on the wrist by Franco Ziliani, figuratively speaking, that is. Ziliani is one of Italy's most important wine journalists, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Italian wines, and he persuaded Duke Guarini of the eponymous estate to stage a vertical of his Malià, a 100% Malvasia Nera, a wine that is all about the uniqueness of the Puglian terroir.

The vertical was remarkable for several reasons, not...