SC - Re: Re: Compost variations, early wine of dried grapes

[ChannonM at aol.com]

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