Vin Santo

Vin Santo is the classic dried-grape (passito) dessert wine of Tuscany: an amber, long-aged wine pressed from late-harvested white grapes — chiefly Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia — that have been laid out to raisin for weeks or months before fermentation. Slowly fermented and matured for years in small sealed barrels called caratelli, it emerges nutty, raisiny and honeyed, with notes of dried apricot, fig, caramel and toasted almond over a warming spirit. Styles run from lusciously sweet to almost dry, but the most loved versions are richly sweet and amber-gold. Its time-honoured partner is cantucci — hard Tuscan almond biscotti dunked straight into the glass.