🍷 Vin Santo

Vin Santo is an Italian sweet amber wine made from partly dried grapes. It comes from Tuscany, but is made in other Italian regions too. It is a kind of passito: wine from dried berries. White grapes, most often Trebbiano and Malvasia, are picked late and dried on straw mats or hung from beams for several months. The berries lose water and the sugar concentrates. The juice is then pressed and left to ferment and mature in small barrels. This usually takes 3 to 10 years. Fermentation is slow, and in the barrels the wine oxidises a little, gaining an amber colour and notes of nuts, honey and dried fruit. Related wines are straw wine and passito from other regions. The wine ranges from dry to very sweet. In Tuscany Vin Santo is traditionally served with almond biscuits, cantucci, into which it is dipped. The wine is strong and sweet, so it is drunk in small portions.