Grape Guide
Molinara
RedMolinara is a black-skinned grape of the Verona hills in the Veneto, traditionally the third partner behind Corvina and Rondinella in Valpolicella and Bardolino. It makes pale, high-acid wines that oxidise readily, and since it ceased to be a required component of the blends its plantings have fallen to a small fraction of their former extent.
Key characteristics
- Mid to late ripening, with fairly vigorous growth
- Good resistance to fungal diseases
- Low colour extraction, so wines are pale and prone to oxidation
- Named for the flour-like bloom (mulino, 'mill') on its berries
- Old pre-phylloxera clones outperform newer clonal selections
Typical flavors
Major regions
Valpolicella (Veneto) · Bardolino (Veneto) · Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella · Valpantena · Veronese IGT · Lake Garda shore of Verona province
Also known as
Brepon · Mulinara · Uva del Mulino · Uva Salà
Molinara is a minor red variety of the province of Verona, grown almost entirely in the hills between Lake Garda and the Valpolicella valleys. For generations it was one of the three varieties that defined the local blends, alongside Corvina and Rondinella, and its role was to supply freshness: the wines are pale, light in tannin and high in acidity, with a tart red-fruit profile that lifts the denser, darker fruit of its partners.
Its weaknesses explain its decline. Colour extraction is poor, and the wine oxidises quickly, so it adds little to the structured, long-macerated or dried-grape styles on which Valpolicella's reputation now rests. Producers who still value it tend to work with old, low-yielding vines, where the fruit is more concentrated and the variety shows a delicate, Pinot Noir-like lightness rather than simple thinness. Bottlings from the variety alone are rare and are usually pale rosés.
Molinara has been recorded around Verona since the early nineteenth century, and the Veneto is its undisputed home. The name comes from the Italian mulino, 'mill': the dusty bloom on the ripe berries resembles flour. Local names such as Uva del Mulino and Mulinara preserve the same idea, while Brepon and Uva Salà are other names recorded in the Verona area.
Its ancestry is only partly resolved. A parentage study of Italian grapevine varieties using SNP genotyping, published in 2021, identified Molinara as a parent-offspring pair with Vulpea, a variety that also links to several other north-eastern Italian cultivars. The second parent has not been identified. Earlier work on the vines of Verona province found that Molinara, Corvina, Rondinella and the rare Oseleta are genetically related to one another to a degree that suggests common ancestors in the Valpolicella hills.
The variety's fortunes changed as the rules changed. Molinara was long a required ingredient of Valpolicella and Bardolino, but later revisions of the disciplinari made it optional and capped it, partly because Corvinone, now treated as a distinct variety in its own right, and Corvina, together with Rondinella, gave better results in dried-grape wines. Plantings were about 1,348 ha in 2000 and roughly 595 ha in Italy by 2010, almost all in the Veneto.
Molinara ripens mid to late season and is quite vigorous, so yield control matters if the wines are to avoid dilution. It shows good resistance to fungal diseases, an advantage in the humid conditions around Lake Garda. Clonal quality is an issue: old selections, including pre-phylloxera material still found in a few Valpolicella estates, give low yields of notably better fruit, while the clones propagated more recently perform less well. Within Valpolicella it is a small share of the vineyard, around 2 percent of the area claimed for the denomination according to the producers' consortium, with the great majority planted to Corvina, Rondinella and Corvinone.
In Valpolicella and Bardolino Molinara is a blending component rather than a headline grape. Its pale colour, firm acidity and light body suit the fresh, early-drinking styles, and it can lend lift to a blend in which Corvina and Corvinone supply fruit and structure. Under current rules it counts among the permitted additional red varieties: in Valpolicella no single such variety may exceed 10 percent of the wine, and Bardolino allows Molinara up to 15 percent. It is also optional in Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella, where its tendency to oxidise during drying makes it less useful than Corvina and Corvinone. Varietal or near-varietal Molinara is made mainly as rosé under the Veronese IGT, giving a light, crisp wine of pale salmon-pink colour.
Where it grows
Valpolicella
Molinara is a permitted but optional minor component, with no single additional variety allowed above 10 percent of the wine, and in practice it is usually far less. A few estates still work with old vines of the older clones, including pre-phylloxera material, which give smaller crops of better fruit than the recent clonal selections.
Bardolino
The Bardolino rules allow Molinara up to 15 percent, counted within the limit for other authorised red varieties. It adds acidity and pale colour to the light red and Chiaretto rosé styles of the eastern Lake Garda shore.
Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella
Molinara was once a standard part of the blend, but it is now optional and little used, as the drying process favours the sturdier skins of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella.
Veronese IGT
The IGT category is the outlet for varietal and near-varietal bottlings, mostly rosés, including examples from Carlo Boscaini that combine Molinara with Corvinone.
Elsewhere in Verona province
Plantings outside the Valpolicella and Bardolino zones are small, and the variety is essentially unknown outside the Veneto.