Ah, Sciacchetrà!. I’ve been interested in trying this wine for quite some time. As a homewinemaker and being very knowledgeable about wine, this obscure wine has really intrigued me. I understand that it tastes a bit like ‘Vin Santo’ the sweet late harvest amber colored dessert wine from central Italy or like sweet sherry. According to my research, this wine is a late harvest wine and that being the case, the grapes are at the whim of nature. With a late harvest wine, the grapes are left on the vines well after the traditional harverst time to concentrate the sugar and acids and thus the ‘must’, the grape juice that’ll eventually become wine will have a brix (the degree of sugar in the juice) of anywhere from 28-34% as determined by a hydrometer. The average sugar at harvest for dry table wines is anywhere from 21-25% and ferments to about 12% alcohol – `13.5% alcohol. With Sciacchetrà and Vin santo as well as all late harvest wines, they are produced only when the weather conditions are perfect and in limited quantities, unlike regular table wines. Also, this wine is basically consumed locally, is made in small quantities and very little of it is imported and in fact it’s rare to find it even in Rome, a mere few hundred kilometers away.

Enjoyed reading this article as we sat on abalcony in Riomaggiore and enjoyed reading about the local Cinque Terre culture. Your article contributed to my understanding, thank you.

@Amanda: Thank you for the kind and thoughtful words. Sciacchetra truly amazing. That trip idea sounds like the perfect plan 🙂

@Brittney: Which village will you be staying in? The villages are very walkable, so you’ll be able to easily find it, no problem 🙂

@Paul: Unfortunately we don’t have notes from the winemakers; however, in our own research we’ve heard about 6 years is a good amount of aging time. Enjoy!

-A former Jersey girl