It is a Rich, popular and noble wine. It is rustic, refined mild and full-bodied. It is a sweet wine which is now produced all over Tuscany with advanced technology and drunk at the end of the meal to accompany home-made cakes or refined pastries. It is also above all a wine for ‘meditation’ with its fine, dark amber color. It generally has a strong, multifaceted bouquet. Vin Santo requires a long, patient preparation. It is not only a Tuscan product. Indeed, there are many other Vin Santos produced in several other limited territories all over Italy. However, the distinguishing feature of Tuscan Vin Santo is that it is a much loved and popular product throughout the region, from Florence to Siena, from Pistoia to Arezzo and Lucca. There are many theories about the origin of its name. It probably took its name from the grapes that were dried in the period around All Saints Day. One of the explanations, though highly unlikely, is that its name can be traced back to the Council of Florence in 1439 which approved the Laetentur Coeli, presumed to have united the Church of the Orient and the Church of Rome. On this occasion a pleasant sweet wine was offered to the metropolitan Bessarione, Bishop of Nicea, which he deeply appreciated, exclaiming “but this is the wine of Xantos’. The Archbishop naturally referred to the similarity of the wine to another sweet wine he knew very well, produced in the Greek city of Xantos, now Xanthi. From then on, it seems that that delicious wine was renamed Vin Santo.
Until a few decades ago, both in humble peasant homes and the rich cellars of the wealthy, Vin Santo had always been present for a toast. Whenever there was an event to celebrate, the wine made its golden appearance to celebrate any event as a symbol of hospitality and good fortune. Nowadays, its consumption has partly been reduced but its quality has been considerably improved and now, the more enlightened producers have put on the market a first class wine which is not inferior to other sweet wines anywhere in the world. Vin Santo can vary considerably in color and this is due to the fact that not everybody produces it with the same grapes. The grapes usually used are Trebbiano, Malvasia, Canaiolo bianco and San Colombano, although some producers add small quantities of other grapes such as Chardonnay, Grechetto and Pinot. According to Tuscan tradition, the gapes are left to dry on reed mats in a closed, well ventilated room and directly on the plant as is done with other grapes of the same kind. The maturing is carried out in oak casks where the wine is left for a few years, even if some producers are trying to change the ancient tradition of using chestnut and oak casks.
If a dry wine or demi-sec is desired , it should be made in January, whereas for a sweeter wine it has to be made in February or March. The small barrels are placed in the so-called ‘vinsantaie’, that is in cellars, generally underground, where there are less variations of temperature. After a minimum of three years, but even four or five, the Vin Santo is 16 to 17.5 degrees (32 to 35 proof) to heat the souls of so many wine lovers and cultured wine experts. And the Vin Santo of the Chianti Classico, needless to say, is one of the best products in Tuscany. There are at least five varieties: the Sweet and the Dry, with their respective vintages, and its ’specialty’, Occhio di Pernice. The first four types are made with Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes. They reach 16 degrees and, in the vintage version, are left to mature for four years. Occhio di Pernice has the peculiarity of combining the two traditional grapes with Sangiovese. The end product is a sweet, pleasing and unusual wine.

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See also:

Giuseppe Verdi and Chianti Wine, Adjectives to Describe Chianti Wine, Pure Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Wine in Short, History of The Fiasco

or go back to An Introduction to Chianti Wine