The historic harbour town (also Malvasy, Monembasia, Monemvassia) is located on a rock off the coast of the province of Laconia on the south-eastern side of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. It was known as the "Gibraltar of the East" due to its impregnability. It owes its name to its location, "moni embasia" meaning "only entrance". In an extremely chequered history, it was under the rule of Byzantium, the Franks, Byzantium again, the Ottomans, the Pope, Venice, then the Ottomans again, Venice once more and finally the Turks, until it finally fell to Greece in 1821 during the Greek War of Liberation.
In the late Middle Ages, especially under Venetian rule, the city was a famous wine trading centre for sweet wines from the Aegean, particularly from the islands of Crete (Candia), Paros, Santorini (Thira) and Cyprus, which were shipped from here to many European countries. This gave rise to the collective name Malvasia for the mostly sweet dessert wines made from various grape varieties that are often not even related. However, there is also an indigenous Greek grape variety called Monemvasia, which was also used.
![]()
The Wine lexicon helps me to keep up to date and refresh my knowledge. Thank you for this Lexicon that will never end in terms of topicality! That's what makes it so exciting to come back often.
Thorsten Rahn
Restaurantleiter, Sommelier, Weindozent und Autor; Dresden