Venice – Malvasia Pop-Up

Malvasia Pop Up: When Malvasia Is Pop! The project dedicated to one of the most fascinating stories in the world of wine, winner of the 2026 Iter Vitis Award

Malvasia Pop-Up

Malvasia Pop Up™ is a cultural and food-and-wine project conceived in Venice by Laura Riolfatto—a cultural project manager, wine storyteller, and sommelier— dedicated to researching and promoting the nineteen varieties of Italian Malvasia and their historical ties to Venice and the Mediterranean.

At Docks Cantieri Cucchini in San Pietro di Castello , as well as along routes extending to the city of Venice and the lagoon, the project takes shape through social events where wine and food are the focal points of conversation among people, lagoon cruises, urban tours, and special gatherings.

Recently, Malvasia Pop Up™ received The Iter Vitis Award 2026 – Best Wine and Food Experience for its contribution to promoting wine heritage, cultural tourism, and sustainable regional development. The award—sponsored by Iter Vitis, the international federation that celebrates and protects the world’s wine heritage by promoting sustainable wine tourism – recognized the value of an independent project that uses the Wine heritage as a tool for knowledge and cultural storytelling. In addition, on that occasion Laura Riolfatto has been named Malvasia Ambassador for Malvasia Myth, an international project dedicated to promoting Malvasia wines and their cultural and viticultural heritage.

“Malvasia Pop Up was born from a very simple question, – says its creator, Laura Riolfatto – ‘How many stories can we tell starting with a glass of Malvasia?’ From there, I embarked on a journey that led me to bring together wine, history, art, food, photography, and culinary culture, exploring the deep connection that links Malvasia wines to Venice and the Mediterranean. Receiving this award means seeing this very approach to wine recognized—not merely as something to be tasted, but as a language through which to convey culture, memory, and history.”

Event Calendar

• October 17, toward evening, in the Lagoon will take Malvasia Pop Up™ out onto the water, aboard Camoma’s historic bragozzo, the Sant’Alban, for a journey through the Venetian Lagoon at the intersection of wine, landscape, and memory. The boat trip—which will depart from San Pietro di Castello—will become part of the narrative: the history of Malvasia, its trade, and its centuries-old connection to Venice will intertwine with that of Dorona, the lagoon’s iconic grape variety. A stop at Vignole, amid vegetable gardens and the lagoon landscape, will feature a tasting and an introduction to the island’s culinary delights, before returning to Venice as evening falls. An experience designed to explore the lagoon through wine, following the traces of a culture born from the encounter between water, land, and the vine.
• On November 20, it will be time for The Night of the Malvasias—Stories, Mysteries, and Wine in Autumn Venice: a special event featuring Venetian writer and storyteller Alberto Toso Fei, in which stories, legends, and anecdotes from Venice’s most secret corners will intertwine with the history of Malvasia and the traces this wine has left in the city over the centuries. The story will continue at the table with a tasting of three rare Italian red Malvasia wines, on a journey through regions, grape varieties, and memory, organized in collaboration with Iter Vitis, a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe and with the Consortium for the Protection of Malvasia di Casorzo DOC. The event will take place at the Cantieri Cucchini Docks inside Tesa3 Marzotto.
• On December 20, the 2026 program will conclude with The Table as a Cultural Language, a lunch and storytelling event dedicated to Italian red Malvasia wines. The table as a meeting place for wine, food, and culture, where the tasting becomes the thread of a story that weaves through territories, traditions, memories, and gestures of conviviality. Red Malvasia wines, in their various expressions, will accompany a gastronomic journey designed to convey—through taste—the identity of the places from which they originate. An intimate gathering for a select few guests, on the eve of Christmas, that will symbolically bring the second year of Malvasia Pop Up™ to a close by returning wine to its most ancient and universal dimension: that of the table as a space for connection, storytelling, and sharing. The event will take place at the Cantieri Cucchini Docks inside Tesa3 Marzotto.

Via Querinissima

Malvasia Pop Up™ is also part of the Via Querinissima network —the European Cultural Route that retraces the journey undertaken in the 15th century by the Venetian nobleman and merchant Pietro Querini. It thus connects Venice with the European territories featured in his story. This participation is in line with Malvasia Pop Up™’s mission to forge connections between wine, history, cultural routes, and European heritage, starting from Venice and its centuries-old openness toward the Mediterranean and Europe.