Description
Velenosi Querci’Antica Visciole Red Blend Marche NV – Sweet Wine (500ml)
Go to Velenosi website – click here
Blend: Lacrima grape 70%, sour cherry syrup 30%
History Backgroung: In the past, sour cherry wine was used to make robust and tannic wines more pleasant and to prevent from oxidation, as sulphites were not available during past centuries. Duke Federico da Montefeltro, according to his trusted biographer and librarian Vespasiano da Bisticci, “quasi non beveva vino se non de ciriege o de granate” (hardly drank any wine, except for cherry or sour cherry wine). Later this wine was regarded as a wine for ladies, apt to render homage to the fair gender with its aromas, smoothness and roundness. Today it is regarded as a wine for meditation, to be savoured and tasted with someone’s company, rediscovering the tastes of a time. This wine is also called “Visciolato” or, more often, “vino di Visciole” (sour cherry wine). The tradition of aromatizing wine in Marche region is an ancient tradition that, from the Middle Ages and aristocratic castles, through farmers’ knowledge, still survives to present. The territory of production is the area of the municipalities of Candiano and Pergola, in the surroundings of Pesaro, and Castelli di Jesi in the area of Ancona. The recipes for this wine significantly differ from place to place, from winery to winery. The basic ingredient for vino di visciole is the sour cherry (Visciola), an ancient wild cherry species (Prunus cerasus), a deep dark red and slightly sour cherry.
Vinification: Based on the traditional recipe, sour cherries are harvested and left to soak in sugar, partly whole and partly smashed, in order to produce a delicate and aromatic syrup. This syrup is then decanted and filtered, and finally being mixed with ready Lacrima wine. The sugars contained in the syrup allows the starting of a second fermentation process which combines the two different identities together (wine and syrup). Fermentation is stopped – by lowering the temperatures – when it reaches around 14% alcohol by volume and a resulting residual sugar of around 80 grams per liter.
Colour: Intense and deep ruby red.
Bouquet: Complex, sensual and intense, it has aromas of blackberry, ripe wild berries, plums, dried prunes and scents of red fruits comfiture. It also shows plenty of spices, from cinnamon to nutmeg.
Taste: Rolling in the mouth, highly persistent and salty. Full-bodied, good acidity, elegant and well balanced. An enchanting wine, to drink little by little, sip by sip.
Food Pairing: Perfect with any dessert made with chocolate and dry pastry cakes with dark berries comfiture. It matches well with blue cheeses and it can also be used for cocktails to add a cherry twist aroma. Nice wine for meditation, or chilled as a digestive wine to conclude a meal.
