Montalcino Report

Harvest Report: Drying the Trebbiano and Malvasia Grapes for the Vin Santo

Today, our workers have laid out on the mats the Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes that they picked today to dry them with the scope of producing our Vin Santo.

The drying takes place in the "Vinsantaia", a very well aerated place where this process takes place in a natural way.

After the drying, the grapes will be submitted to gently pressing and the must will be transferred to the inside of "caratelli", the special casks for the production of the Vin Santo, for a long and slow fermentation on the mother yeast, who, simultaneously with the aging, will endure for many years and will give the Vin Santo its characteristic aroma.

Harvest Report 2011: Grapes for Vin Santo Are Ripe and Ready to Pick

We have made an examination of the white grapes Malvasia and Trebbiano with which we are going to make the Vin Santo.

The grapes are healthy, at the right point of ripening, and in the next days, they will be harvested to be place on mats to be dried.

Drying of the grapes for Vin Santo

Yesterday, I posted my father's notes on the Trebbiano and Malvasia that we picked yesterday and that will be used to make our Vin Santo.

After the grapes are picked, they are situated on these mats made out of reeds.

Then the workers hang the mats as in this photo and the grapes will dry in the "vinsantaia" until December. Note how the windows in the vinsantaia will provide natural aeration for the "appassimento" or "drying" of the grapes. 

Here's a video of the grapes being situated on the mats. 

Once the grapes have made their "appassimento", in other words, when they have dried properly, they will be vinified and the wine will be aged in "caratelli", small barrels used for the production of Vin Santo.

Here are the caratelli from the 2007 vintage for the Vin Santo of Il Poggione.

Harvest of Trebbiano and Malvasia for Vin Santo

Here are notes of my father about the harvest of Trebbiano and Malvasia for Vin Santo. Tomorrow I will post more photos and a YouTube video but now we are all very tired from harvesting!

Today, we have harvested the Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes to make the Vin Santo. We have waited the most possible, because of the dry progression of the season, so that the grapes would ripen even more on the vine. Our workers have harvested the healthy and most ripe grape bunches. They were placed in crates and transported by truck to the vinsantaia. The grapes were placed on reed mats where they will remain to dry at least until the beginning of December.

Fabrizio Bindocci