Based on the traditional Italian Vin Santo style, the Sotto di Ferro is an unctuous, sweet, liqueur-style wine that is best taken as a treat. Pedro Ximenez and Muscadelle bunches are carefully hand-picked and placed in small crates before being taken to our ‘hanging shed’. There, an experienced team ties six to eight bunches of grapes onto strings which are then suspended from the rafters for up to eight weeks. The grapes dehydrate naturally as they are exposed to air, and when the team at Charles Melton Wines deems the grapes to be concentrated enough, the bunches will be pressed in a basket press. The juice is then yeasted and fermented in small 60-litre old oak casks known as ‘Caratelli’ for 1 for 18 months. After fermentation completes the wine will remain in barrel for a further four years before it is bottled.