Visciola
“Luigi Giusti’s Visciola is made in a centuries-old Marche tradition of making dessert wine with cherries. The production is actually quite complicated, as two varieties of cherries are processed separately with half of them being dried in the sun for 40 days. Grape wine from the current vintage is used as a base wine, but the fermented cherries are not pressed. Rather, a ripasso process is employed with some wine from the previous vintage. Sour cherries are then also utilized with residual sweetness retained. The resulting dessert wine has a potent sour cherry profile with a balancing tartness in the Italian tradition.”
Alcohol: 12.5% by vol.
Bouquet: Intense, fresh wild cherry
Flavor: Sweet, with a good balance, persistent finish
Pairs with: on its own, chocolate or dry sweets, ice cream, tarts
Color: deep ruby red
Serving suggestions: medium size goblets at 55-60 F
The wild cherries, Viscole, come exclusively from the Marche region and are selected when over-ripe. After the harvest of the wild cherries the cherry stones are removed but the wild cherries are never pressed. The first step is the fermentation of the wild cherries in sugar. The cherries ferment under the sun for 40 days in large 25 liter bottles. The cherries are stirred daily.
In September, during the harvest of the Lacraima di Morro d’Alba grapes, the second step begins. When the fermentation of the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba starts, the syrup of the cherries is mixed into the must of the Lacrima.
The wine stays in fermentation with the cherries for four to five weeks.
At the end of this second fermentation a small part of the Lacraima di Morro d’Alba wine with the syrup is place in wooden barrels for 12 months. After 16 months, the unfiltered and un-clarified products are then rejoined during the bottling, with a hint of Wild Cherry wine syrup to complete its harmony.
