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
English wine cask units denote its contents. The unit was also known as a "tertian" (from the Latin word for "third"). Of comparable size to the beer hogshead, the wine hogshead was equal to half a butt or a quarter of a tun. Closely related to the modern oil barrel, the tierce was half a puncheon, a third of a butt or a sixth of a tun. The wine barrel was half a wine hogshead or an eighth of a tun. The rundlet was a seventh of a butt or a fourteenth of a tun. Originally, the tun was defined as 256 wine gallons;