One of the best known native varieties of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Malvasia Istriana is also grown in the neighbouring Slovene Republic and in the Croatian part of Istria, symbolically uniting the peoples which have always shared these Adriatic regions. It is a generous variety which produces a wine whose character is determined by harvest dates. Picked at full ripeness it is fragrantly inviting, while late harvested it becomes drier and more austere.