SC - Re: Re: Compost variations, early wine of dried grapes
ChannonM at aol.com
ChannonM at aol.com
Wed Apr 5 18:21:13 PDT 2000
In a message dated 4/5/00 8:41:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
CBlackwill at aol.com writes:
<< I am not sure
when Vin Santo was created (though sweet dried grape wines have been around
for a loooong time). Anyone?
Balthazar of Blackmoor >>
I can speak for a Roman wine that is made from sweet dried grapes mentioned
as passum: Flower & Rosenbaum suggest using a sweet Spanish wine and
describe passum as a specially prepared cooking wine used to sweeten
sauces.They confer with Pliny who adds that it is not only sweeter than
defrutum, but has a different flavour*. Palladius even says that one can use
it like honey. Columella gives two elaborate recipes for the preparation of
passum:
Mago gives the following directions how to make the best passum, and I have
made it myself like this. Gather early grapes when they are fully ripe,
aremoving mluldy or damaged berries. Fix in the ground forks or stakes 4 feet
apart to support reeds and join them together with poles. Then place the
reeds on top and spread your grapes in the sun, covering tehma night so they
do not get wet from the dew. Then, when the have dried, pick the berries off
the stalks and put them in a cask or wine-jar and poor the best possible must
over them so that the berries are completely covered. When sturated put them
on the sixth day in a wicker basket and presss them in the wine press and
extract the passum. Next tread the grape-skins, having added freshest must
which you have made from other grapes that were lseft to dry in the sun for
three days. Mix together and put the whole mash through the wine-press , and
this passum of the second pressing put immediately in vessels which you seal
so that it does not become too rough. Then, after 20 or 30 days, when it has
ceased fermenting, strain it into other vessels, seal their lids with gypsum
immediately, and cover with skins.
If you wish to make passum from the bee grapes gather the whole grapes,
clear away damged berries , and throw them out. Then hang them up on poles.
See to it that the poles are always in the sun. As soon as the berries are
sufficiently shrivelled pick them off and put themwithout stalks in a vessel
and tread them well with your feet. When you have made none layer of them
sprinkle old wine on and tread another layer of grapes over it and sprinkl
this also with woine. Do the same with a third layer and after having added
wine, leave for five days. Then tread with your feet and press the grapes in
a wicker basket. Some people prepare old rain-water for this boiling it down
to a third of its volume , and then when they have made raisinns in the
manner described above, they take the boiled-down rain-water instead of wine,
doing everything else in a manner where there is plenty of wood, and in use
it is even sweeter than the passum dexcribed above.
I have contacted the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and began to search for
a wine that made from raisins. What I found was a plethora of knowledge and
information and a wine that matches. It is called a
Amarone valpolicella DOC Classico $20-$30 per 350 ml
or as a substitution
Malivalpolicella -Ripaso which can be found at $13.85 (Villa Girardi
Valpolicella 1995)
Hauviette
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