Italian Vin Santo

As will be explained in more detail below, all Italian Vin Santo production traditionally follows the same basic scheme, although there are major differences in the grape varieties used and in the degree of grape drying these lead to the different types and styles of Vin Santo. 

The Italian Vin Santo is therefore a complex, ancient, and traditional wine, and even today it well deserves to be called "the wine of hospitality."... 

As outlined above, Vin Santo wines are essentially a group within the larger collection of dessert wines that are made mainly from non-aromatic grapes, and which in Italy are called "vino passito" or passito. This term "passito" generally means "wine made from dried grapes" (Italian vino da uve passite) (Table 3.2). 

Tachis (1988) reported the mean composition of Vin Santo, on the basis of about 200 samples produced over the years in different Italian Regions and mainly in Tuscany (Fig. 3.2). From this investigation, it is seen that in the past most Vin Santo were characterized by an alcohol content of between 16% and 17%. Slightly fewer had 15-16% alcohol, with these Vin Santo together accounting for some 70% of total production. Only 10% of the sample had alcohol levels close to 15%, while 9% of the sample had an alcohol content from 18% to 21%. 

TABLE 3.4 Vin Santo (Official denominations and recognitions according to Italian law, and relative main parameters)... 

TABLE 3.5 Mean composition of Vin Santo from different Italian regions (from Tachis, 1988)... 

In a recent thorough investigation focused on dessert wine demand in the Florentine areas, Meucci (2008) reported that these consumers showed a clear preference (44%) for Vin Santo (Fig. 3.7). The preference of the remaining consumers was mainly for Passito di Pantelleria and for other Italian dessert wines (44% in all). Only a small share of consumers (around 7%) bought dessert wines from the noble rot, while the remaining 3% purchased from among all of the other Italian and non-Italian dessert wines. 

To date, although many studies have been conducted on microbial population dynamics with different grape varieties and fermentation conditions, very few of these have been strictly related to Vin Santo. Despite this, various studies regarding the alcoholic fermentation of other Italian passito wines, which have similar production characteristics to those of Vin Santo, have been produced, contributing to the understanding of some important microbial aspects of this particular production process. 

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