Producer:
Grape Variety:
100% Malvasia Bianca
Tasting Note:
Rocca di Montegrossi’s Vin Santo is produced from Malvasia Bianca del Chianti. It is especially well suited to the production of this kind of wine thanks to its aromatic richness, the thickness of the skins of the grapes, and their propensity to oxidize. The bunches of grapes are hung one by one on nets in a well-ventilated area under the rafters. All netshung from rails. During the drying phase the grapes are affected by noble rot (botrytis cinirea), which confers distinctive, striking characteristics. Thanks to the rails, workers can shift the nets and work their way through the drying room removing grapes that have begun to deteriorate. This operation is carried out every week until the pressing, which generallytakes place in the January following the harvest. At the end of this 3-4 month period the grapes are quite concentrated, with high sugar contents. They are gently pressed and the must thus obtained goes into small casks (50 and 100 liter) of a variety of woods (cherry,oak, mulberry) in which it ferments and ages for a period of 6-7 years. The resulting wine isbrilliant amber. On the palate it’s velvety, with intense, complex persistent apricot, dried fig, toasted almond, date, caramel and coffee aromas. Thanks to its distinctive freshness anddelicacy it is an excellent meditation wine, though it will also work very well as a dessert wine, with dry confectionary or crème brûlée, and it will also work well with blue cheese orfoie gras.
Vinification:
Annual production is less than 2,000 0.375 It bottles, a miniscule amount (theyield of grapes into wine is less than 10%).In other words, this wine is not made following commercial logic, but as Marco Ricasoli observes this is “poetry to pour”.
Scores:
95 Points Falstaff
95 Points Wine & Spirits
95 Points Wines Critic
94 Points Wine Align