Sweet — dried-grape (appassimento / passito)
Wine from grapes dried after harvest until they raisin, concentrating sugar and flavour. The ancient appassimento method behind Vin Santo, Recioto, and — in dry form — Amarone.
About dried-grape (appassimento / passito)
Drying grapes to concentrate them is one of the oldest winemaking techniques in the Mediterranean, predating refrigeration and chaptalisation by millennia. After harvest the bunches are laid on straw mats or bamboo racks, or hung from rafters, in well-ventilated rooms; over several weeks to months they lose a third to half of their weight to evaporation, intensifying sugar, acid, and aromatic compounds while developing dried-fig, date, and nutty notes. The Italians call this appassimento, and it underpins a whole family of wines: the lusciously sweet Recioto della Valpolicella, the oxidative and contemplative Vin Santo of Tuscany (slowly fermented and aged in small caratelli barrels), and Sicily's raisiny Passito di Pantelleria from Zibibbo. The same drying step, fermented out to dryness instead of stopped sweet, produces Amarone della Valpolicella — powerful, high-alcohol, and bittersweet (amaro means bitter). Editorially the category is a bridge between sweet and dry, and a reminder that concentration can be achieved by patience and air rather than rot or frost.
Production process
Principal producers
- Avignonesi (Vin Santo)
- Giuseppe Quintarelli
- Donnafugata (Passito di Pantelleria)
- Pieropan (Recioto di Soave)
Editorial notes
Sweet passito styles (Recioto, Vin Santo) are distinct from the dry Amarone made by the same drying method — check whether the wine is finished sweet or dry. Vin Santo is traditionally paired with cantucci almond biscuits for dipping.