How about a warmer version of ice wine? -2

If you have read my previous post, you just might be interested to read on. As promised, let's bring in our main characters of straw wine in, namely the Dry red wine and the sweet red wine versions of straw wine. We shall focus more on the dry red wine in this post.

Amarone della Valpolicella (the dry red wine) as the nature would explain for itself, consist of the process of making this beautiful wine by allowing the grapes to dry, and not surprisingly, on straw mats! Of course, as per many other things of this world, names flow from their historic growth. Thus, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that straw mats, while remains a traditional method of drying the grapes, has started to see its fate being replaced by special drying chambers nowadays for the modern Amarone. Talk about being sentimental, sticking onto the traditional method might not always be ideal here. If you've been a loyal reader of my blog, the term "Botrytis cinerea" might in this instant ring a bell in you. Yes, just as mentioned in my post about ice wine, grapes processed here should be free from the noble rot as well. Thus the reason why the modern processing method might appear to be a better method of processing these grapes here. With the special drying chambers, the amount of handling that the grapes undergo is greatly minimized, hence decreasing the chances of the onset of Botrytis cinerea. Another term worth knowing would be "rasinate" - to dry and shrivel in Italian. And just as in the case of ice wine, though the grapes are not collected while it's frozen, by rasinating the grapes brings us quite the same result, and that is the concentration of sugars and flavors in the grapes. Following the drying of grapes comes the familiar step of fermentation. However, note that this shall not be mistaken as a step that is similiar to the usual fermentation. The fermentation of the dry grapes here are kept at a dry low temperature fermentation and is usually a much longer process. This is because with the reduced water content, it is easy to see the higher level of spoilage and possibility of wine faults.

And with the right grasp of time for fermenting the grapes comes the birth of our dry red wine, Amarone. However, interestingly, while the dry and sweet red wine are categorised apart, they are yet not so apart. This is so because should the fermentation be stopped early, the residual sugar in the resulting wine might just twist the fate of the wine and turn it into a sweet wine known as Recioto della Valpolicella. For the sweeter version, you might like to try it with some chocolate desserts!

Just like the making of the ice wine, the process of producing these straw wines are quite a challenge in itself as well. No wet and rainy weather is really welcomed here as this might lead to the rotting of the grapes even before it can dry out. And if the luck doesn't help here, the winemakers will then see themselves putting in extra effort in trying to remove those rotten grapes in order to ensure the quality of their final product is not compromised. Ask me what would happen if the effort of the winemakers are compromised? Well, I can only wish you enjoy the wine with the moldy flavors! *cheers* or *puke* you know it now~

Enjoy~

P.S The above information is obtained from
- The Wikipedia
- The website "http://www.detrafford.co.za/w_straw1997.htm"
- The picture from "http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Zyance" and "italianwinehub.com/news05.html"