Visciola

I was sampling some Lacrima de Morro d'Alba at their stand at last year's wine fair when I was told to try this Visciola. I was told that it was very famous in the past, with the Duke of Urbino writing about it 600 years ago, saying that he would not drink any wine except Visciola. So what is it? It is a spiced wine made by first fermenting wild Visciole sour cherries for two months and then refermenting that with Lacrima must for another 3 months, before aging 6-8 months in barrels and then bottling the resulting wine. Spiced are added somewhere along the way. Looking it up in the Web, there is at least another variant with a different wine base (Pergola Rosso made from Vernaccia di Pergola and Sangiovese). Deep ruby with a sweet acid spicy nose with a dominant cinnamon note, the above Visciola has a sweet slightly fruity cinnamon palate, with a nice amount of acidity running right through to the end. Somewhat reminiscent of mulled wine because of its spiciness.