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''Vincotto'' (translated as "cooked wine") or ''sapa'' is a dark, sweet dense condiment produced artisanally in the Puglia/Apulia and Marche regions of Italy. It is made by the slow cooking and reduction over many hours of non-fermented grape must until it has been reduced to about one-fifth of its original volume and the sugars present have caramelized. It can be made from a number of varieties of local red wine grapes including ''Primitivo'', ''Negroamaro'' and ''Malvasia Nera'', collected after being allowed to wither naturally on the vine for about 30 days. In Roman times it was known by the same names, sapa in Latin, and epsima in Greek, that are often used for it in Italy and Cyprus, respectively, today.〔(), Pliny to Elder, on Perseus〕 ==Description== Vincotto has a sweet flavor, and is not a form of vinegar, though a sweet vinegar version can be produced using a vincotto as a base. This additional product is called a Vinegar of Vincotto, Vincotto Vinegar, or Vincotto balsamic and can be used in the same way as a good mellow Balsamic vinegar. Vincotto appears to be related to ''defrutum'' and other forms of grape juice boiled down to varying strengths (''carenum'', ''sapa'') that were produced in Ancient Rome. Defrutum was used to preserve, sweeten, and/or flavor many foods (including wine), by itself or with honey or ''garum''. Defrutum was also consumed as a drink when diluted with water, or fermented into a heady Roman "wine." (Note: defrutum should not be confused with ''passum'', a wine made from fermented raisins that originated in ancient Carthage and was popular in Ancient Rome. Passum was therefore more similar to modern Vin Santo than to vincotto.) Over many centuries, the vincotto produced in the Salento area of Apulia (the "heel" of Italy), was further developed into several different varieties of higher quality and culinary sophistication. In Salento - in the heel of Italy - Vincotto is produced from the slow reduction together of a blend of cooked grape must and of a wine that has started to spoil and sour attaining at the consistency of dense non-alcoholic syrup. The tradition of this goes back to the times of the ancient Romans when grape musts were reduced over heat to facilitate conservation and transportation. In more recent times, from 1863, Salento, an area of Apulia, greatly expanded the vineyards which also led to a great increase in the production of Vincotto. Wine production in these times was hampered by the unsophisticated understanding of wine production which was the cause of wine spoiling. Not to waste this precious resource, it was blended with cooked grape must and then, put through a long slow reduction to produce the Vincotto. In this way all the therapeutic and organoleptic properties typical of red wines were maintained. The added value of Vincotto arises also from the fermentation cycle of the wine from which it was produced, which forms the basis of all the most prestigious products of Italian tradition. Vincotto can be used as a sweet condiment, as well as being sparingly drizzled over strongly flavored foods such as game, roast meats and poultry, aged cheeses, and risotto. Due to the nature of the Apulian red grapes, wines are produced with very high polyphenol counts. These work as antioxidants and are good for health, and act as strong natural flavour enhancers when added to other ingredients in a culinary recipe. The words "vincotto" or "vino cotto," as it's commonly called in southern Italian regions such as Calabria, are generic names that cannot be registered as a trademark by any producer. In Greek, vincotto is called petimezi. Note that petimezi is only produced in Crete, which is part of the modern Greek Nation. In Croatia, this product is called ''varenik'', and is produced on the Dalmatian islands and in the Dubrovnik and Skradin region. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「vincotto」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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