Pietro Querini

(*) On April 25, 1431, a cog, the Gemma Querina, sets sail from Candia, aboard which sits the shipowner, the noble Pietro Querini. The ship is laden with a precious cargo: bombaso (cotton), rose water, cedar syrup, olive oil, myrrh, saffron, aloe, cinnamon, nutmeg, tamarind, and more, but especially 700 barrels of Malvasia and 68 barrels of fine Malvasia. All the wine comes from the vineyards and cellars of the castles of Temoni and Dafnes, owned by the Querini. The route is that of the Flanders trade, with the Gemma Querina headed to the port of Antwerp. After rounding Cape Finisterre in the Atlantic, off the coast of Galicia, the cog encounters a storm and is driven off the coast of Ireland, where it sinks. Querini doesn’t have time to mourn the precious cargo because he must think about saving himself. He does so aboard a small boat, along with 16 sailors. After an unimaginable odyssey, the shipwrecked survivors land on an uninhabited islet in the Lofoten Islands, Sandoy, located beyond the Arctic Circle. Today it belongs to Norway.

The noble Pietro Querini, being a good merchant, is interested in fishing and the catch and how it is preserved. On May 5, 1432, along with some of his sailors, he leaves the island and somehow manages to reach London, where he is hosted by his compatriots. Leaving the English capital, crossing the Channel, he reaches Venice on horseback after 24 days, on October 12, 1432. From his account, the Venetians learn about stocfisi, the dried cod: bacalao. This is then brought by Venetians to the most important markets in the Mediterranean. A clarification of a gastronomic nature: bacalao is cod preserved in salt, while stocfisso is cod that is dried in the open air.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare mentioned Malvasia in his tragedy Richard III and has a hitman of the Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, utter the terrible threat: “I’ll drown you in my bed with in the malmesy-butt within.”

George Plantagenet

Said and done: in a barrel of Malvasia, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, ends his days secretly drowned by two executioners, after Edward had him tried for treason, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and finally sentenced to death. It is the year 1478, during the Wars of the Roses.

Pierre Belon

Pierre Belon, diplomat, naturalist, and writer, between 1546 and 1549, travels in the Eastern Mediterranean basin. In his observations, he reports that: “The wine that we call Malvaticum is produced only on the island of Crete. The wine exported after concentration, especially from Retino. On the island of Crete, two Malvasias are produced, one sweet and the other commonly referred to by the Venetians as Malvasia garba. The latter can withstand transport as it is not concentrated and cannot be preserved for long.”