Wine from da Vinci’s 15th century vineyard recreated

A winery in Lombardy has produced its first vintage in the same spot where it is believed Leonardo da Vinci once owned vines.

A Malvasia from the same spot in Milan where da Vinci owned vines has been recreated

As reported by Decanter.com, Castello di Luzzano has produced just 330 bottles of wine made from a specific clone of Malvasia di Candia Aromatica planted in 2015 in the same place in central Milan where the Renaissance master had a vineyard plot.

Made from the 2018 vintage, the wine was aged an amphora before being bottled this spring. A number of the 330 bottles are set to be auctioned.

The da Vinci vineyard in Milan is open to the public

The historic drop was made in partnership with La Vigna di Leonardo, the organisation that runs a museum at the vineyard site, which is open to tourists.

Castello di Luzzano was chosen to spearhead the project because it has worked with the Malvasia di Candia grape variety for centuries.

Most famous for painting the Mona Lisa, da Vinci was also a sculptor, scientist, mathematician, astronomer, master draughtsman, cartographer and engineer.

In what little spare time he had, he also liked indulging in a spot of grape growing after being gifted a vineyard in Milan in 1499 by Lodovico Sforza in exchange for one of his masterpieces – The Last Supper.

According to Decanter.com, the vineyard site in central Milan survived for 444 years until it was bombed by allied forced in 1943 during World War II.

It took a team of researchers 11 years to locate the da Vinci vineyard site, identify the vine remains discovered during the excavation, then find a similar surviving  Malvasia clone, which was eventually located in Piacenza, southeast of Milan.