Dried Grape Wines

Essentially, there are two methods for the production of dried grape wines. The first is about giving a twist to the trunk support groups, but allows the fruit to remain on the vine, and it is a method I alluded to in my installment of Late Harvest wine. When sufficiently dried grapes harvested as normal, and this practice is roughly equivalent to the more normal tendon harvesting method, but in this case the grapes dehydrate naturally as wine shuts down in winter, with no damage to the trunk. Although stem-twisting may have been a popular method for quick practice of drying grapes after harvest is probably more important today. Traditionally, the process may have taken place on beds of straw tubes or why the French vin de paille and Austrian Strohwein, but in modern times, with most commercial and economic pressures, but the process is far more likely to occur in built facilities, the grapes based on specially designed trays. There are still some manufacturers who adhere to the time-honored traditional methods and I have met a Roussillon, a producer from Mas Amiel, who just put his grapes on stony ground, right beside the vines to dry apparent lack of local grapes gnawing animal life is such that this is a commercially viable practice.

Naturally, the exact origin of the dried grapes method is and always will be unknown, but it is a technique that was developed around the Mediterranean, especially in Crete, Greece and Italy. The technique was described as early as the 8th BC by Hesiod, a writer in ancient Greece who wrote the text on agriculture and viticulture, he went into the drying of the grapes when harvested, for ten days in the sun, followed by five in the shade before fermentation. A few centuries later Phoenician Mago gave much more detail, describing the use of pipes and points of fermentation, maybe two thousand years before any manufacturer, realized the value of Botrytis.

In modern times the technique has been most associated with Italy, the classic regions of Tuscany, Veneto and Piedmont have all produced wine in this style. In the latter, but in demand in the last millennium, the wines are rarely seen now, in Tuscany, still many producers with Vin Santo. But the tradition continues on the length and breadth of Italy, from Trentino down to the Mediterranean islands, often based on Moscato or Malvasia grapes, although many other varieties that fit the bill. It is still very strong in the Veneto, where the method behind Recioto di Soave, Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella, the previous user Gargenega, the latter two in the Corvina grape. Amarone is perhaps the odd-man-out here, because here the must is fermented to dryness, while Recioto and other Italian types are sweet. Although a thorough search would undoubtedly uncover manufacturers who use this method in most European wine producing countries, including Spain, Austria, Cyprus and Greece, the very large producers are few and far between, except for Vin Santo, Amarone and Recioto of Italy, which is a few rare and expensive Vin de Paille wines made around the Hermitage in France, especially by Chaves and Chapoutier, and also in the Jura near the Swiss border. The practice is complicated and expensive. At harvest time a strict and rigorous selection is necessary because only the healthiest, impeccable grapes, which lend themselves to a period of drying every speck of mold will run riot through harvest, since it hangs out to dry, which brings the absolute ruin. For similar reasons, grapes remain intact and free of any damage to skin. They are then placed on trays and stacked in the drying house, the traditional straw is also attractive to mice and other pests to modern use, but dry sticks or nets can still be seen in use. They may alternatively be hung from the rafters traditionally, but also from hooks or cords, all sufficiently positioned so that air circulates, an insurance against the development of advice.

When it comes to ferment, it would likely be a slow affair, though this is true of all sweet wines. It may need encouragement by heating the tank, especially as time has passed during the drying of the grapes average temperatures are now even lower than they were at harvest. Drying time depends on variety, can be as long as four months of Amarone, although many grapes will dry sufficiently in as many weeks. Alternatively, cultured pearls yeast used to kick-start fermentation. After completion of the process, the wine has been plagued by lees, which can be configured to use a reinforcement of the small Valpolicella wine, so do Ripasso. Many traditional styles then involve oxidative handling, implementation of a rancio character for the style, but simple, aromatic styles based on Moscato, Muscat, and Recioto di Soave, is more likely to be protected against oxidation.

Key points:

• Wines made from grapes dried before fermentation for millennia. 

• As with all wines of quality, sweetness results from drying of grapes. 

• The style is now best characterized by Recioto and Amarone della Valpolicella. 

• Here grapes are harvested, stacked and dried in specially-built drying houses.