The 101 on Vin Santo (Italy's Dessert Wine)

Round two. Round four. Go. Okay, Vinsanto 101. Go. Vinsanto, basically the name came from, there was a legend that there was a cardinal that was in Greece centuries ago and had tasted a wine similar to Vinsanto from the island of Xanthos. And when he came back to Tuscany and he tasted this particular wine, he said, Xanthos, like that, right? And being heavily influential in the days, people said, you know, Xantho must be something holy about this wine. So, hence the name Vinsanto, so wine, holy wine. And another legend states that it's basically harvested and dried during the Xanthi, so during the November months. Okay, so the day after Halloween for all saints. So, those are the two legends basically of Vinsanto. One from a, you know, crazy cardinal and another one from the actual period of time when this is harvested and dried. Okay, quickly, dessert wine. Yes. From Chianti Classico or from Chianti Bar. In this particular case, yeah, you have Vinsanto that's made all over Tuscany in similar fashions. This particular Lornano Vinsanto is Chianti Classico D.O.C. Used as a dessert wine predominantly. Can be served warm, can be served cold. Strong, sharp cheeses. Aged Pecorino cheese is definitely a must. Or Cantucci, which are your typical biscotti Tuscani with almond. And then people actually dip it into the Vinsanto and they have it as a dessert. So, grapes are harvested, they're actually dried like a Pacimento style. Pacimento. So, they go on straw or plastic kind of mats. Dried for four to five months and then aged in casks that are special casks. There are chestnut casks that contain the mother yeast, sort of what you make vinegar out of. And they are not put in a cellar at a temperature controlled environment of 18 degrees and 65% humidity. They're completely done the opposite way where they're put in the attic. Where you have 50, 60 degrees in the summertime and really cold, cold temperatures. So, the fermentation starts and stops. And starts and stops for a period of five, six, seven years. And they're completely sealed. So, there's no oxygen getting in. And then in about the sixth or seventh year, depending also on the winemaker, it will open a cask and see how the liquid is. And it's usually quite sweet, obviously, from the Pacimento. The residual sugar is probably about two or three. So, making it a combined alcohol of about 15% in this case, which is not an exaggerated alcohol level. And that's it. So, basically, they're aged in casks, but they're chestnut casks, not oak casks. Because chestnut wasn't a very readily available wood back in the day in Tuscany. So, they used whatever they had available. So, it's a sweet dessert wine. It has a lot of nuttiness. Great for dessert. Great for aperitif too. You could even make a cocktail out of it. You can make a cocktail out of it before dinner. Absolutely. And after dinner. So, it's a very flexible wine. You don't need a special occasion to drink this wine. You just basically need some friends that are willing to try something different, something new, and something delicious. Okay. Quickly, what about affordability? How affordable is it? Affordability? This wine over here, in general, anywhere from $19 to $25 a bottle. Very reasonable. It's a half bottle. So, it's almost like a nice wine style. Absolutely. We have 375 ml. We also have 500 ml. So, the two formats are available. Alright. Well, we're in Tuscany drinking Vincenzo. Life really couldn't get any better. Thanks, Marco. That's great. You're welcome. Signing off.