The best way to serve it is in small tulip-shaped glasses. An excellent after-dinner drink this grappa lends an authentic Italian flavour to any evening. The wine is produced by spreading the grapes on matting so that the sugar concentration increases as the grapes dry. When the concentration has reached the right level, the grapes are removed, pressed and placed in casks, generally 100 litres in size, which are used solely for this wine. The casks are then closed, sealed and placed in lofts.
Fermentation therefore takes place very slowly and is entirely dependent upon the seasons.
Vinsanto can remain in the cask for many years and it is only when the cask is finally opened that we find out the result of so much patience. Indeed, it is not unusual for the entire contents of a cask to be rejected. So it is easy to see why Vinsanto is always produced in small quantities and that the longer it remains in the cask, the rarer it will be. The Chianti Classico olive plants are correctly considered one of the great wealths of our zone. At Castello di Monterinaldi we harvest all of our olives by hand.