Hello All,

Let’s talk about the techniques of grape drying and how much the Masi winery is an excellence in this field.

What is grape drying?

It is a technique that can be performed both on the plant in the vineyard or on racks after harvesting; it consists in letting the grapes rest for a period that can vary from a few weeks to a few months. This technique allows a natural dehydration of the grapes themselves that by losing water, concentrate all their characteristics and enables the making of rich wines.

With the drying of the grapes we have a higher concentration of sugars; there are many sweet wines (we find several above all in the Triveneto area and in Sicily), which are produced with this technique.

In Veneto, where the technique dates back to ancient Roman times, withering is also used for the production of dry wines, making them full-bodied, complex and relatively alcoholic. The pride of this production method is certainly the Amarone, a wine that is entirely made from grapes left to dry for a long time.

The Masi winery technique

As already mentioned, the Masi winery is a leading expert in this technique; let’s see together which are the most important steps that Masi follows  in order to obtain the Amarone :

• The grapes must be perfectly healthy and the bunches must not be too compact.
• After the harvest, the grapes are left to rest in areas called fruit pans, on bamboo racks for more than 100 days, during this time the grapes lose about 30-40% of their weight.
• Some varieties are subject to Botrytis, which is a beneficial mold also known as ‘noble rot’; it gives the wine a velvety softness, a round body and distinct spicy notes; of the three varieties of grapes  traditionally used to make Amarone,  the Corvina is the one most subject to Botrytis in the withering phase.
• The dried grapes are generally pressed between late January and early February.
• The maceration and fermentation processes last about 45-50 days, and the wine produced is left to age at least three years in wood before bottling.

The Masi Expertise Appaxximento symbol that you can find on the label, certifies the specialization of Masi in the grape drying technique, guaranteeing the authenticity and quality of the wines.

In the last fifty years, Masi and his Technical Group have used this method in an innovative way to create five Amarones and three Recioti; furthermore, using lightly dried grapes, Masi created wines like Campofiorin with its Brolo Campofiorin Oro selection,

Great!  Now that you know more about the grape drying technique, go and taste these wonders and let me know what you think!