Wine Review: Bonny Doon Ca’ Del Solo Malvasia Bianca 2003

Lynne Kiesling

One of Bonny Doon’s missions in the Ca’ Del Solo line is to showcase underappreciated grapes. Malvasia Bianca is one such grape. It is dry, dry, dry, with a flavor of succulent but not lush or sweet fruits. It had a nice orange blossom nose that complemented the bone-dry flavor. The flavor also had some flinty mineral tones, but they were subtle. The blurb on the website says

Configured as an ethereal, bone-dry wine, she continues to be bright and racy?though hardly a tart?and redolent of litchi, grapefruit and jasmine.

We had it with salmon, asparagus, and spanokopita, and it was good both on its own and with the food.

I promise, I’m not a shill for Bonny Doon, but these two wines back to back and both for around $13 are truly remarkable.

7 thoughts on “Wine Review: Bonny Doon Ca’ Del Solo Malvasia Bianca 2003”

  1. Since you’re hitting some of the Bonny Doons, I must recommend the Cardinal Zin…if you can get it there.

    I’d also say that BD takes the wine very seriously, but tends towards irreverence rather than lack of seriousness. Screwcaps (as I’m sure you know) eliminate the risk of corking entirely. Curiously, BD seems to have had some corking issues in the past, making their early transition to screwcaps explicable.

    Best,

    DOC

  2. Since you’re hitting some of the Bonny Doons, I must recommend the Cardinal Zin…if you can get it there.

    I’d also say that BD takes the wine very seriously, but tends towards irreverence rather than lack of seriousness. Screwcaps (as I’m sure you know) eliminate the risk of corking entirely. Curiously, BD seems to have had some corking issues in the past, making their early transition to screwcaps explicable.

    Best,

    DOC

  3. Since you’re hitting some of the Bonny Doons, I must recommend the Cardinal Zin…if you can get it there.

    I’d also say that BD takes the wine very seriously, but tends towards irreverence rather than lack of seriousness. Screwcaps (as I’m sure you know) eliminate the risk of corking entirely. Curiously, BD seems to have had some corking issues in the past, making their early transition to screwcaps explicable.

    Best,

    DOC

  4. Since you’re hitting some of the Bonny Doons, I must recommend the Cardinal Zin…if you can get it there.

    I’d also say that BD takes the wine very seriously, but tends towards irreverence rather than lack of seriousness. Screwcaps (as I’m sure you know) eliminate the risk of corking entirely. Curiously, BD seems to have had some corking issues in the past, making their early transition to screwcaps explicable.

    Best,

    DOC

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