ALTHOUGH I'm not the kind of person to dip a digestive in my tea, when it comes to cantucci biscotti, I'm all about the dunking.
Cantucci are twice-baked to make a drier style of biscuit, which can then be stored for a very long time before being dunked in your coffee. However, I would heartily recommend replacing the coffee with a large glass of Vin Santo.
Vin Santo traditionally comes from Tuscany (although it is now made throughout Italy) and it's a very particular style of sweet wine. Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia Bianco grapes are harvested and then dried over the winter on straw mats. The wine is then aged in barrels (traditionally chestnut, but now more usually oak) without being topped up. This means that the air in the top of the barrel helps to create a wine with an oxidative character not unlike a good sherry.
Some producers make a really interesting Vin Santo from Sangiovese grapes (the classic grape of Chianti). These wines have a rose tint to them and are known as occhio di pernice (the eye of the partridge).
Unfortunately, Vin Santo is not terribly easy to find. You'll occasionally come across one in the posher supermarkets, but they tend to list it seasonally. So your mission this week is to go forth looking for cool, independent wine merchants who list this rare and exciting dessert wine. If you have a good Italian deli near you, that should be your first stop. And they'll also sell cantucci biscotti.
My favourite example of Vin Santo is not from Italy at all, but in fact comes from Greece. The Vin Santo by Gaia 2004 (Inverarity One to One, £29.99 for 50cl) is nothing short of spectacular and thoroughly deserves a place in your drinks cabinet.
Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street, Glasgow www.inverarity121.com
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