2009 Rocca di Montegrossi - Vin Santo (del Chianti Classico)

100% Malvasia Bianca di Toscana, in conversion to organic viticulture. Harvested first 10 days of October 2009. Almost three months’ drying on vertical racks. Pressed 14–19 December to yield 500 litres of must. Fermentation for eight years in small oak, mulberry and cherry-wood barrels. Bottled 26 June 2017. 24 months in bottle before release. Total SO2 52 mg/l, free SO2 10 mg/l, TA 5.3 g/l, pH 3.68, VA 0.67 g/l, RS 352.7 g/l. 1,327 half bottles . Deep brown-amber, with some tawny tints and some olive at the rim. Thick and glass-coating. Intensely figgy with some hazelnut, overripe banana and milk-chocolate notes. Unctuous texture and very sweet, though there’s a fair cut of acidity. Molasses or dark brown-sugar flavours, with more fig, raisin and Christmas cake. Spicy finish, with the sheer sweetness doubtless causing the flavour to stick to the palate! Long, therefore. One for baked bananas and caramel right now, I reckon, but perhaps leave this for a year or so to shed some of its primary character? (TJ)

The 2009 Vin Santo is a rich, exotic wine, as it always is. Readers will find one of the richest most intense Vin Santos being made today. Plush, tropical and ample in feel, Rocca di Montegrossi's Vin Santo is bold and racy to the core. The 350 grams of residual sugar leave the wine with tremendous textural plushness.