Cantina Sangro. Passerina

Passerina IGT Terre di Chieti
Grape: Passerina

There is a wonderfully irresistible, fresh, easy-drinking style to the 2024.  Crisp white peach, white berries and dry hay, salt and herb playing a small, but important part.  12.5%

8000 bottles made
2024 was a very hot vintage and a difficult one for young (8-10 year old) Passerina vines.  The yield was lower than expected, the acidity was lower and the sugar ripeness a little higher than normal.

Cantina Frentana and Cantina Sangro producer page

Passerina takes up a small part of the land that Sangro farms, just 25 of 1000 hectares.  It is a variety that flies under the radar, neither gaining, nor loosing land.  The vines are nearly all between 10 and 15 years old, trained using either Tendone* or Pergola Abruzzese* systems.

Soils are sand-rich loams, and the proximity to both sea and mountains creates a constant breeze, which is a very healthy environment for vines.
The grapes are picked by hand at the end of September, later than both the Chardonnay and Pecorino.  Bunches are soft-pressed (no skin-contact, no maceration) and fermented using selected yeasts at between 16-17ºC, this takes 2 weeks and malolactic* is blocked.