Istmo, Organic

Story: Have you ever tasted wine from vines that are a century old? La Casa di Sophia is an extraordinary organic vineyard where these ancient vines grow in the sands of the Sant'Antioca peninsular in the South West of Sardinia. The vineyard comprises several vigne (smaller plots) of bush (freestanding or albarello) vines, aged between 46 and more than 100 years. All harvested by hand, the grapes in this wine come from the oldest vines (between 75 and 100 years old), which yield small quantities (0.3-0.5kg per plant). The grapes are  allowed to spontaneously ferment, and the first 'free-run' juice, or fiore (fyoh-ray), is collected before the grapes are softly crushed in a manual wooden press called a torchio (tor-kyoh). The juices are then combined for fermentation to continue under controlled temperatures in steel vats. The wine is cleared by racking (removing the liquid from the natural debris) four times. On the fifth and final racking, the last one third in the tank is filtered through cardboard. Isthmo has been bottle-aged for at least 11 months. Only around 1,200 bottles are produced each year.