Vin Santo

Vin Santo is Tuscany's traditional dried-grape wine, and its production is closer to a household ritual than to modern winemaking. Bunches of Trebbiano and Malvasia — occasionally Sangiovese, for the pink Occhio di Pernice version — are picked and hung from rafters or laid on cane mats in a well-ventilated loft, where they dry slowly through the autumn and winter, losing most of their water.

The shrivelled fruit is pressed around January, and the intensely sugary must is sealed into small barrels called caratelli. These are only partly filled, deliberately, and are not topped up. They are then left in an attic or loft — not a cool cellar — for three to ten years, through the full swing of Tuscan summers and winters.

Almost everything about this violates conventional practice. The temperature is uncontrolled, oxygen is present, and fermentation proceeds fitfully over years, often driven by a portion of yeast-and-lees sediment from a previous batch called the madre, passed down between vintages like a sourdough starter.

The result is amber to deep brown, with dried apricot, fig, hazelnut, caramel, orange peel and a distinctly nutty, oxidative depth. Sweetness varies enormously between producers, from richly sweet to almost dry, because nobody is controlling the fermentation particularly closely.

It is served with cantucci, the hard almond biscuits, which are dipped into it. The pairing is a cliché and it is also correct. Much commercial Vin Santo is dull and made industrially; the real thing, from a small Tuscan estate, is a completely different wine.