Vin Santo substitute

Substitutes for Vin Santo with ratios

1. 2Tawny Port (10 Year)

   Close match

   Use the same amount

   Aged in wood in contact with air, which produces exactly the nutty, dried-fruit, caramelised character Vin Santo has.

   What changes

   Best for

   biscotti dipping, poached pears or figs, chocolate desserts, pan sauces for duck or pork, cheese

   Nuttier and noticeably richer than Vin Santo, with red-fruit and fig notes and more residual sugar, so a zabaglione made with it comes out plumper, darker in colour and heavier on the palate. It also has more alcoholic heat. Cut any other sugar in the recipe slightly. Ruby Port is a poorer match, being fresher, fruitier and not oxidised.

2. 3Madeira (Bual or Malmsey)

   Close match

   Use the same amount

   The best choice for savoury and pan-sauce uses.

   What changes

   Madeira is deliberately heated during ageing, which gives it a baked, nutty, caramelised profile with unusually sharp acidity.

   Best for

   pan sauces, reductions, mushroom dishes, cakes and puddings, with cheese

   Very close to Vin Santo on the nut-and-caramel axis, and its bracing acidity actually makes it better than Marsala for anything that will be reduced, since the sauce stays lively rather than going syrupy and flat. Bual and Malmsey are the sweeter styles; Sercial and Verdelho are drier and will need a little sugar. Slightly more savoury and less honeyed than Vin Santo overall.

3. 4Cream Sherry, Oloroso or Pedro Ximenez

   Different taste

   Use the same amount for cream sherry, ⅔ for Pedro Ximenez

   Spanish oxidised wines, which share Vin Santo's mechanism of ageing in contact with air.

   What changes

   Oloroso plus a teaspoon of sugar per quarter cup is the closest of the three.

   Best for

   poached fruit, pan sauces, cakes, ice cream, with hard cheese

   Pedro Ximenez is dramatically sweeter and almost syrupy, a raisin and molasses concentrate, so use two thirds the amount and cut sugar elsewhere or the dessert becomes cloying. Cream sherry sits closer in sweetness but is simpler and slightly caramel-flat next to Vin Santo. All three tilt the flavour toward Spanish raisin and walnut rather than Tuscan apricot and honey.

4. 5Sauternes, Late-Harvest Riesling, Moscato or Passito

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   Other dessert wines, and the right choice if what you actually want is a glass to drink with the biscotti rather than an ingredient.

   What changes

   Best for

   drinking with dessert, poached fruit, fruit-forward cakes, sabayon

   All are sweet and high in acid but none are oxidised, so they taste bright, floral and stone-fruity where Vin Santo tastes nutty and aged. In a pan sauce this shows up immediately: the reduction is fresh and perfumed rather than deep and toasty. Passito di Pantelleria and Recioto di Soave, both made from dried grapes, are the closest of this group because the appassimento step matches.

5. 6Raisin Soaking Liquid Plus Lemon (No Alcohol)

   Different taste

   Use 3 tbsp strained liquid plus 1 tsp lemon juice for every ¼ cup Vin Santo

   The best alcohol-free option, and better than it sounds.

   What changes

   Soak two tablespoons of golden raisins in a quarter cup of hot water for twenty minutes, strain, then add lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

   Best for

   cakes, biscotti, poached fruit, soaking dried fruit, syrups

   Dried grapes are literally what Vin Santo is made from, so this captures the honeyed raisin note that no juice can. What it cannot supply is the barrel-aged nuttiness or the alcohol, so the result is sweeter, simpler and slightly one-dimensional, and it will not keep a syrup or soaked fruit as long as wine does. A drop of almond extract adds back a hint of the nut character.

6. 7White Grape Juice Plus Tea and Lemon (No Alcohol)

   Different taste

   Use 3 tbsp white grape juice, 1 tbsp strong black tea, 1 tsp lemon juice for every ¼ cup

   The pantry version of the above.

   What changes

   The tea contributes tannin and a touch of the barrel-like astringency that plain juice lacks.

   Best for

   baking, cakes, soaked sponges, poached fruit, glazes

   Works genuinely well in baking, where sugar and acidity are what the recipe wanted from the wine. It falls apart as a drinking substitute, since it tastes of grape juice and tea rather than of an aged dessert wine. Do not skip the lemon and the pinch of salt; without them the mixture is flatly sweet and makes the whole dessert taste dull.