Vino Santo Trentino

Vino Santo from Trentino is a dessert (passito) wine made from Nosiola, a white grape variety native to Trentino-Alto Adige. The grapes are harvested late and are slowly dried on racks (arele), usually for five or six months. They are often affected by noble rot.

The resulting wines are amber-colored, concentrated, and pleasantly sweet. The aroma is complex, reminiscent of apricots, peaches, dry fruit, warming spices, and honey. On the palate, the wines display raisin, dried fig, and honey flavors. The sweetness is balanced with good acidity, and the wines have a long-warming finish.

Vino Santo is often cited as the passito dei passiti—or the passito of the passito—as a reference to the long drying time that typically lasts until the Holy Week. The grapes are exposed to constant ventilation and the famous Ora wind from Lake Garda.

Trentino Vino Santo is one of the rare Italian raisin wines dried for such long periods. The minimum aging period is two years in oak, but these wines are built to last and can be aged for decades. Vino Santo is great on its own, but it can also work well with blue cheese and desserts, especially sweet bread, cookies, and fruit-based desserts.