Cantillon Vin Santo

Description

Cantillon Vin Santo is a lambic made using the pomace of Trebbiano grapes coming from Tenuta di Capezzana macerated with 12 and 24-month-old lambic. The wine, also known as Vino Santo, is known for being a sweet dessert wine where it is traditionally served in Tuscany. The first batch was served during the Arrogant Sour Fest in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 2018. A second batch was also served at the same festival in 2019. The third and fourth batches saw a redesigned label by the artist AMMO, and were available for on-site consumption at the brewery as well as the restaurant Pasta Madre (now closed).

History / Other Notes

Cantillon Vin Santo was inspired by the ideas of Michele Galati, owner of The Dom and Abbazia de Sherwood in Italy. The Vin Santo grapes come from the Tenura Capezzana winery (owned by the Contini Bonacossi family) and were dried and oxidized before being shipped to Cantillon for blending. Noticing how aromatic the grapes were when compared to other varietals, Jean opted to blend them with a 3-year-old lambic that was sharper and more acidic than the usual 2-year-old lambic that is generally blended with grapes. The barrel was filled for 2.5 months, during which the barrel had to be refilled 3-4 times due to the absorption rate of the dried grapes. Then the barrel was emptied only 160 L of lambic remained out of the initial 400 L that went in. The first batch of the beer was then bottled in March of 2018. A total of 120 bottles were produced and approximately 10 were opened at the Arrogant Sour Fest in 2018. This is known to be Cantillon's second only experiment with dried grapes, the first being Cantillon Reed Gueuze Muscat.

So far, to the despair of the brewery and after four bottlings, there is no plans for further batches since the winery encountered issues trying to export the grapes, as it was refused by customs who said they couldn't legally ship them.

Bottle Log

Bottle date (mm/dd/yyyy)	Cork Date	Bottle Size	Label / Notes
xx/xx/2018	Season 17/18	750 mL	First batch, 120 bottles. Served in Italy, none for sale to go. Some may have classic yellow labels.
05/15/2019	Season 18/19	750 mL	Second batch, 540 bottles. Served in Italy, few for sale to go.
04/06/2020	Season 19/20	750 mL	Third batch, served on-site and at Pasta Madre. New label designed by AMMO.
02/02/2022	Season 21/22	750 mL	Fourth batch, sold to go in a few selected shops

Label

Photos

Batch 1 of Vin Santo served at the brewery, March 2019