Malvasia companies occasionally use the name "Malvasia" or "Malvazia" for non-vintage Madeiras, especially those primarily marketed to Portuguese-speaking countries. English historical tradition associates Malmsey wine with the death of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward IV of England. Following his conviction for treason, he was "privately executed" at the Tower on 18 February 1478, by tradition in the Bowyer Tower, and soon after the event, the rumour gained ground that he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. Malvasia Malvasia (, also known as Malvazia) is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the
Isleños in Louisiana Canary Islands. With the crisis occasioned by the collapse of the trade in the Canarian "malvasia" wine (called "malmsey" in England) in the 18th century, there was an increase in poverty. Beginning in the late 1700s, prickly pear cactuses were grown in the Canary Islands to serve as hosts plants for cochineal insects from which the dye carmine was made. It became a major export of the islands in its own right, but this trade collapsed in its turn after the dye began to be produced synthetically in Europe. Most of the affected people were farmers and laborers who had