A Rosé by Any Other Name

On June 18th, we went to La Pievuccia winery. While there we learned about their winemaking techniques and tasted 4 of the 5 wines they make. We tried their white wine, rosato, red wine, and Vin Santo.

Of the wines we tried, one of my favorites was their rosato which they called Milamé. It's a pink wine that is more commonly called rosé. Rosato wines can be made from red grapes or a blend of red and white grapes. Typically, rosato wines have around 14-15% alcohol content.

La Pievuccia make their rosato using Sangiovese grapes. The name Sangiovese comes from the Latin phrase "sanguis Jovis" which literally translates to "blood of Jove". Sangiovese grapes are native to the Tuscany region in Italy. La Pievuccia uses a winemaking technique called salasso, or bloodletting. The process is as follows: First, the grapes are manually picked and harvested in late September. Then, macerate the skins for 5 hours in large wooden barrels. Then, separate the solids formed from maceration and begin fermentation. Halfway through to the end, the wine is fermented by gravity. Then the wine is aged in barrels of 500 liters. Finally, the wine undergoes batonnage until early February. Once finished, the Milamé will have an alcohol content around 14.5%.

The owners of La Pievuccia say that Milamé is best served in ample quantity with pasta with tomato sauces, pizza, and preparations of fish. While that may be true, I think Milamé is delicious by itself.

-WB