Wine Arcana

Grape

Molinara

Also known as Rossano, Rossanella

Molinara is a red grape of the Veneto, best understood through the blending traditions of Valpolicella. It offers a useful counterpoint to the assumption that every red-wine ingredient must maximize colour and tannin. A lighter contribution can be a deliberate part of the style a producer wants to make.

The Italian Vitis Database records Rossano and Rossanella as official synonyms. Its Italian profile connects the name Molinara with the conspicuous waxy bloom on the berries, likened to flour from a mill. That surface bloom should not be confused with the pigmentation extracted from grape skins during winemaking.

Its place in a blend

Molinara can accompany Corvina and Rondinella. It is not compulsory in the Valpolicella specification consolidated in 2023, which names the principal proportions for Corvina/Corvinone and Rondinella and permits other suitable red grapes within additional limits. A traditional association therefore does not mean that every Valpolicella contains it.

Speri offers a clear contemporary example of continuing use. Its published Valpolicella Classico composition includes 10% Molinara, alongside Corvina and Rondinella, with short maturation in steel and glass-lined concrete. This places Molinara within a deliberately youthful regional red. The example establishes an active stylistic choice, without implying that the finished wine is an isolated demonstration of Molinara's flavour.

Colour, tannin, and interpretation

A University of Verona experiment compared wines from local grapes grown in one vineyard and vinified by a common small-scale protocol. Molinara had particularly low total phenolics in that comparison.1. D. Slaghenaufi et al., OENO One 55 (2021), pp. 279–294. The experiment describes particular vineyard material and vinifications, not a fixed composition for every Molinara wine. That provides a firmer basis for discussing a lighter structural contribution than simply assuming all dark-skinned grapes behave alike.

It also helps explain why Molinara and Oseleta should not be treated as equivalent “minor grapes.” Their potential contributions differ. The useful question is what a blend needs, including the balance between aroma, body, and tannin, rather than whether a variety supplies the largest amount of any one component.

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