Life is short, eat dessert first or better drink it first. That’s the way I am feeling today and wishing I had a bottle of this wine from Capezzana, which I tasted earlier this year. We were told that their winemaker, Benedetta Contini Bonacossi ,checks on the grapes three times a day , 7 days a week when they are drying in the Vinsantaia. Their particular Vin Santo is made from a. blend of Trebbiano Toscano and San Colombano, a less well known indigenous grape. The wine has been produced since 1925, the year they made their first harvest. Capezzana’s vineyards are at 100-150 meters above sea level and face East. The soils here are Schist and Clay.

A careful selection of grapes are picked in the middle of September and then dried for five months on cane mats until January of the following year. The wine is vinified in barrels known as Caratelli and there it remains for 7 years. The caratelli tend to be made of Chestnut, Cherry, Oak. The wine is usually bottled for three months and when it is released it has 14% alcohol and 280g/l of residual sugar. When we tried the wine, it was paired with some cheeses although it would also be great with traditional cookies or dry desserts. It really is such a treat on its own.

It was a beautiful amber color with intense aromas of candied and dried fruits, apricot, and fig notes came through on the nose and palate. The wine had lovely acidity and freshness and was very persistent on the palate with a long elegant finish to an important tasting and meal. The Capezzana wine was a Vin Santo Carmignano Riserva DOC. I loved it.

I had promised I would write about the Capezzana dinner but I started with the dessert first. Stay tuned for notes on other wines soon.