Vin Santo is still produced using the same labor-intensive process that was used hundreds of years ago. Towards the end of the growing season, before Volpaia harvested its white grapes, the winery picked the best bunches of Trebbiano and Malvasia to go into the Vinsanto. The grapes were taken to the winery’s Vinsantaia (left), a special attic where the bunches were hung from chains tied to the rafters and dried. The grapes are never touched during the maturation process. The windows were kept open in the Vinsantaia for the next few months, ensuring that the air in the large room was constantly being circulated. On February 10, once the grapes’ sugar levels were high enough, they were pressed and the juice put through a natural process of clarification. The highly-concentrated must was then fermented in small caratelli oak barrels already containing madre (“mother”) – a remnant of the thick residue left over from Vinsanto that had already been bottled – for five years.