Raisin Wine

Straw wine, or raisin wine, is a wine made from grapes that have been dried to concentrate their juice. The result is similar to that of the ice wine process, but is a much older process and suitable for warm climates. The technique dates back to pre-Classical times with wines becoming fashionable in Roman times and in late Medieval/Renaissance Europe when wines such as Malmsey ('Malvasia' originally from Greece) and Candia (from Crete) were highly sought after. Traditionally, most production of these wines has been in Greece, the islands of Sicily, Cyprus, Northern Italy and the French Alps. However, producers in other areas now use the method as well.

Under the classic method, after a careful hand harvest, selected bunches of ripe grapes will be laid out on mats in full sun. (Originally the mats were made of straw, but these days the plastic nets for the olive harvest are likely to be used). This drying will probably be done on well exposed terraces somewhere near the wine press and the drying process will take around a week or a little longer. Small scale productions were laid out on flat roofs; however, if this still happens, it is extremely rare nowadays.

Under less labour-intensive versions of the technique, easily portable racks might be used instead of mats or nets, or the grapes are left lying on the ground beneath the vines, or even left hanging on the vine with the vine-arm cut or the stem twisted. Technically speaking the grapes must be cut off from the vine in order for the wine to be a 'straw wine'. If the grapes are just left to over-ripen before being harvested, even if this is to the point of raisining, this is a 'late harvest' wine.

The exact technique used varies according to local conditions, traditions and increasingly modern innovations. In some regions the grapes are laid first in the sun and later covered or they are covered at night to protect them against dew fall. In cooler, damper regions, the entire drying process takes place indoors in huts, attics or greenhouses with the bunches lying on racks or hanging up with good air circulation.

Straw wines are typically sweet to very sweet white wines, similar in density and sweetness to Sauternes but potentially sweeter. They are capable of long ageing. The low yields and labour-intensive production method means that they are quite expensive. Around Verona red grapes are dried, and are fermented in two different ways to make a strong dry red wine (Amarone) and a sweet red wine (Recioto della Valpolicella).

History

Excavations in Cyprus on the Neolithic site at Erimi have revealed that sweet wine was made here some 6000 years ago. This is the earliest appearance of sweet wine in the Mediterranean region. A wine grape wine known as the Cypriot Manna (or Nama). Similar principles were used to make the medieval Cypriot wine Commandaria, which is still produced today.

The process of making raisin wines was described by the Greek poet Hesiod in mainland Greece around 800 BC. Various Mediterranean raisin wines were described in the first century AD by Columella and Pliny the Elder. Pliny uses the Greek term for honey wine for the following raisin wine, "The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun...It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour. The liquor known as melitites is also one of the sweet wines." Columella discusses the Passum wine made in ancient Carthage. The modern Italian name for this wine, passito, echoes this ancient word, as does the French word used to describe the process of producing straw wines, passerillage. Perhaps the closest thing to passum is Moscato Passito di Pantelleria from Zibibbo, a variety of the ancient muscat grape, produced on Pantelleria, an island in the Strait of Sicily (50 miles from Tunisia) opposite to where Carthage used to be.

Australia

Barossa Valley producer, Turkey Flat Vineyards has been experimenting with this style very successfully since 2002 with their 100% Marsanne aptly name
'The Last Straw'
Air-dried on racks for approximately 6 weeks it is fermented in new oak & now bottle post-fermentation to retain freshness. Residual sugar sits at a comparatively low 59g/L.

Austria/Germany

Strohwein or Schilfwein is an Austrian wine term in the '' Prädikatswein'' category which designates a straw wine, a sweet dessert wine made from raisin-like dried grapes. ''Stroh'' is German for straw, while ''Schilf'' means reed.

The minimum must weight, the same as for Austrian Beerenauslese, and these regulations are part of the Austrian wine law. The grapes are furthermore required to be dried for a minimum of three months, either by laying the grape bunches on mats of straw or reed, or by hanging the bunches up for drying by suspending them from pieces of string. However, if the grapes have reached a must weight of at least 30 ºKMW (same must weight as a Trockenbeerenauslese) after a minimum of two months, the grapes are allowed to be pressed at this earlier time.

Strohwein and Schilfwein are treated as synonyms by the wine law, and the choice between them therefore depends on local naming tradition rather than the specific material used for the drying mats for a specific batch of wine.

The Strohwein ''Prädikat'' exists only in Austria, not in Germany.

Croatia

The raisin wine most commonly seen in Croatia is Prošek which is traditionally from the southern area of Dalmatia. It is made using dried wine grapes in the passito method. There are only a few commercial producers as it is typically homemade.

Czech Republic

Slámové víno is the Czech term for straw wine that, under Czech wine law, is classified as a Predicate wine (Czech: ''Jakostní víno s přívlastkem''). Czech regulations require the harvested grapes to come from a single wine sub-region, the grapes must be dried for at least three months either on straw or reed mats or hung in a well-ventilated space, and the must weight is required to reach at least 27° NM on the Normalizovaný moštomer scale. Straw wine in the Czech Republic is typically made from white grapes that are well-ripened and undamaged.

France

Vin de Paille is the French for 'straw wine', made only in the ripest vintages. Perhaps the best known example is made in the Cotes du Jura (Arbois and sometimes L'Étoile) from a blend of Chardonnay, Savagnin and the red grape Poulsard. Vins de paille are also made from Marsanne in Hermitage, and from Riesling in Alsace. In Corrèze, it is called Vin paillé. Traditionally the grapes are placed indoors on straw mats for up to three months, and the final wine has 10-20% residual sugar, with flavours of peaches and apricots .

Greece/Cyprus

Liastos is Greek for "sun-dried" and is the word used to describe Passito or straw wine. Greece and Cyprus are the original home of the style and quite a few Liastos wines are produced here.

Cyprus Commandaria claims descent from the native Cypriot wine served at the wedding of King Richard the Lionheart, just after he conquered the island, and then produced by the Knights Templar at La Grande Commanderie in Cyprus after they purchased it from him, and hence claims to be oldest named wine still in production. Commandaria is made from two indigenous grapes, the white Xynisteri and the red Mavro, an ancestor of the Négrette grape known as Pinot St-George in the US.

Monemvasia. Monemvasia-Malvasia is a recreation of the famous Malmsey or Malvasia wine traded by the Venetians and made originally here in the Southeast Peloponnese. The version made by Monemvasia Winery has won many awards recently.

It is worth noting that Monemvasia-Malvasia is NOT made from any of the various grapes called Malvasia. It is made from a blend of grapes including Kidonitsa, Assyrtiko, Monemvasia and Asproudi. Some of these varieties are, (or are related to) the ancestor varieties of the Malvasia family, as are Aidani