Vin Santo DOC Toscano 0.50L

Vin Santo DOC of the Montalbano Quarrata Tuscany – 0.50L bottle

The Vin Santo DOC Tuscany is sold in two types of packaging:
CHS503 – Vin Santo DOC Toscano 0.50L bottle pack of 3 bottles
CHS506 – Vin Santo DOC Toscano 0.50L bottle pack of 6 bottles

Produced by the Banci family since 1890 according to a process of the ancient Tuscan tradition,
it is a wine with an intense and sublime aroma, with an amber color with golden reflections.

Harvest and pressing

During the harvest period, from the white grape vineyards of Trebbiano, San Colombano and Malvasia del Chianti,
the most expert grape harvesters choose the best grape strands among the more mature ones,
more exposed to the sun and with the most sparse berries and the most skin. tough.
The harvested grapes are manually cleaned of any dry or not completely healthy berries.
The selection is so careful that every year about 900 quintals of grapes are taken only 30 for the production of Vin Santo.

Selected grapes, traditionally called “the chosen”, are taken to the vinsantaia, a low humidity room specially built to be particularly ventilated.
Here the grapes are gently placed on reed mats, the particular attention not to break the berries is due
to the danger of rotting which causes a lowering of the quality of the finished product.
In order to make more use of the spaces, the mats are superimposed to form what is called a “government castle”.
The goal of these procedures is, in fact, to make the grapes lose the watery part while preserving the sugary one without compromising their health.

Traditionally, during the Christmas holidays and taking care to choose the period of the waning moon (in peasant language called “hard” moon),
after removing the stalks and discarding any moldy grapes, it is time to squeeze the grapes that are now dried.

Vinsantaia – Wine becomes Holy

At this point we are not even halfway through the work, the freshly obtained must is placed in “caratelli”, small wooden barrels
usually made of oak or chestnut with a variable capacity of 50-200 liters.
It is important that the cask is not new, casks in which red wine was once aged must be used, it takes years before a cask becomes
suitable for the production of Vin Santo.
Particular care must be taken in filling the keg: the must must not exceed two thirds of the supported volume and the upper
part of the kegs, the “zaffo”, must be walled up with cement so as not to subject the must to excessive oxygenation.
No more oxygen is needed than what inevitably penetrates the pores of the wood.

The year of production is also imprinted on the cement.

Even the kegs are kept in the vinsantaia, this is because the liquid must undergo all the thermal variations linked to the succession of the seasons for at least 4 years.
After this period the kegs of the same vintage are uncorked and the raw Vin Santo comes out of the “zipilli”, holes in the lower part.
From each cask only 1/5 of a liquid is obtained which becomes Vin Santo DOC Tuscany of Chianti D.O.C., while the remainder is founded that cannot be used.
Each keg has transformed the Vin Santo in a peculiar way: from one can flow a drier liquid, from another more amber,
but only by mixing them together you get a semblance of continuity of taste.
At this point it only needs to decant in glass or steel containers for the necessary period, on average 2 years, to acquire its typical brilliance.

Then our task is finished and it’s time to call the inspectors of the Chianti Wine Consortium for the formalization:
they take the samples, analyze the organoleptic characteristics and after approval our Vin Santo is finally ready to be bottled and drunk. .

A family tradition that has become a passion, a decidedly long process that is worth going through literally… tasting to believe.

For more information about VIN SANTO DOC Tuscany