Cantina Sangro. Passerina

Passerina IGT Terre di Chieti
Grape: Passerina

Crisp white peach, white berries and dry hay, salt and herb playing a small, but important part. Wonderfully irresistible, fresh and easy-drinking. 12.5%
8000 bottles made

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.