# Passatempo Vino Bianco Passito (2011)

- **Producer:** Tunia
- **Colour:** white
- **Type:** dessert
- **Grapes:** Trebbiano
- **Region:** Toscana, Italy
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 13.0%
- **Average price:** €70
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** Yes
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 12–14 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** apricot, orange, honey, dried apricot, marmalade, dried fig, walnut

## About this wine

Tunia was founded in 2008 by Francesca Di Benedetto, Andrea Di Benedetto, and Chiara Innocenti in Civitella in Val di Chiana, Tuscany. Named after the Etruscan deity presiding over fruit ripening, the estate produces artisanal wines through certified organic and biodynamic principles. They specialize in restoring old vineyards planted in 1970, preserving historical Tuscan grape biotypes such as a thick-skinned, pink-hued clone of Trebbiano traditionally used for extended drying and sweet dessert wines.

## Interesting facts

- Passatempo translates to pastime, marking the decade of patience required for aging.
- Made from a rare Trebbiano clone whose thick berries turn pink when fully mature.
- Crate columns in the drying room are manually reorganized each month to inspect every grape.
- Micro-production dessert wine with only around 500 bottles crafted per vintage.

## Food pairing

The intense natural acidity of this Passito balances its high sugar content and cuts effortlessly through rich, salty, and pungent blue cheeses. Its oxidative profile, rich in dried fruit and nut tones, matches dry almond pastries and aged sheep's milk cheeses seamlessly.

## Wine making process

Hand-harvested in late September into small 1 kg crates, whole grape bunches dry naturally until February in the estate's vinsantaia, where columns of crates are disassembled and inspected by hand monthly. The concentrated sweet must undergoes slow, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in 54-liter oak caratelli. Regulated by natural ambient seasonal temperature swings, the wine matures in these small barrels for 8 to 10 years before bottling unfiltered with no fining agents.