Dessert Wine - Raisin Wine

Raisin Wine

In ancient Carthage, a sweet wine called passum was made from air-dried grapes, and across the Malta Channel from the site of Carthage, similar wines are still made, called Moscato Passito di Pantelleria. Such wines were described by the Romans, and northern Italy is home to a number of 'passito' wines, where the grapes are dried on straw, on racks, or hung from the rafters. These wines include Vin Santo (into which almond biscuits ('cantucci') are traditionally dunked), Sciachetrà, Recioto di Soave (drunk with the local version of panettone) and the sweet red Recioto della Valpolicella (which stands up to chocolate better than most wine). Across the Alps, the French make 'straw wine' (vin de paille) in the Jura, Rhone and Alsace, the Spanish start off making a raisin wine with Pedro Ximénez before fortifying it, the Cypriots have their ancient Commandaria and there have been recent experiments with the style in South Africa and the USA.