Passito di Pantelleria - Sangue d'Oro
A sweet wine, produced in the Sicilian lands of Carole Bouquet!
Deeply in love with the Mediterranean, Carole Bouquet acquired 25 years ago one hectare of land on the small Italian island of Pantelleria (the island of winds), between Sicily and Tunisia. Started from a simple desire to walk on her land, the actress's project evolved and led her to take up the challenge of resurrecting a wine of anthology: the Passito.
It took her years to buy up abandoned plots of land from more than 70 farmers to build up her estate, which today covers 25 hectares, 8 of which are vineyards. Some vines are more than 120 years old and still produce. The vineyard is made up of numerous plots of land planted in terraces and surrounded by low walls, so as to protect them from the perpetual wind that characterizes the island's climate. The soils are mostly volcanic.
On her land, the ex-James Bond girl, who was also the muse of Chanel, discovered an abandoned winery that she completely rebuilt in barely a year. All the staging was ready for the actress to play her new role, that of winemaker.
The estate's only product is Sangue d'Oro, a sweet wine made from raisined grapes under the Passito de Pantelleria Denomination of Origin. Its first vintage was 2005. This wine, still little known, of a rich sunny colour, smells like summer and oriental fruits. It is in fact elaborated according to a particular maturing method, which offers sweet wines. The only authorized grape variety is zibibbo, the local name for the Muscat of Alexandria, meaning "grape to be dried".
The grapes are harvested at good maturity, then left to dry in the sun, on tuffeau stones, next to very high refractory walls that raise the ambient heat to 50 degrees. This operation is called "passerillage" or sun-drying. In this way, the bunch is dehydrated, offering maximum sugar concentration. Every two days, the grapes are turned over, bunch by bunch, so that they dry evenly during a month. It is only after this metamorphosis that the grapes are pressed and then vinified in barrels. The vinification remains slow and stops quite naturally. The rule is that the wine must be aged between 12 and 24 months in casks, and then sometimes in the bottle.
As the vines are planted at an altitude of 500 metres, Sangue d'Oro keeps a lot of freshness. Aniseed, it proves to be incredibly fresh and balanced despite its high sugar content, between 180 and 300g of residual sugar. The whole remains well balanced by the necessary acidity.
The Sangue d'Oro is a gem! Drink as an aperitif, with a piece of cheese, at sunset or at the end of a meal as a dessert wine. It should be served very chilled, in a glass with a wide opening, allowing you to make the most of its very intense aromas. The Sangue d'Oro can accompany all desserts based on exotic or candied fruits, not forgetting chocolate.
CAROLE BOUQUET - Passito di Pantelleria - Sangue d'Oro - 2015 - Bottle of 50 cl
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