SAGRANTINO, CHE PASSIONE!

E' il Sagrantino di Montefalco il vino attualmente più pregiato in Italia, e quindi uno dei migliori del mondo.La prestigiosa rivista statunitense di economia e finanza in un articolo a tutta pagina sull'eccellenza dei vini italiani considera il sagrantino una autentica sorpresa e lo paragona senza riserve a "Re" Barolo.Un riconoscimento assolutamente importante -e meritato- che porta i vini umbri all'attenzione del mercato statunitense.

Why The Next Wine In Your Wine Cellar Should Be A Sagrantino Di Montefalco

Umbria is a beautiful part of Italy. I already hear your comments, most of Italy is beautiful. This is true. So if I add that Umbria also has some stunning wines? OK, so does a lot of other Italian regions. But still, Umbria has some very rare wines indeed.Umbria is a small region but with distinct differences in wine styles. In the south of Umbria, vineyards are scattered around the pretty town of Montefalco. As in the more famous neighbour to the north, Tuscany, Sangiovese is grown here and used for the wine Montefalco Rosso. Many of these wines are very pleasant and affordable. Great food wine, light and elegant in style.However the big surprise comes from the Sagrantino grape. This grape is used for only a small part of the production in Montefalco. But the wines are stunning. There is as much complexity and ageing potential that you can ask for. Some people compare it with Barolo from Piedmont, others with that great grape of southern Italy, Aglianico.“Sagrantino must be tamed”, says one grower, meaning that you really have to age this wine. And after having tasted a number of wines from 2011, the vintage that was recently released, I agree that the tannins are very obvious. But how obvious will depend on the producer. They all have their different ways of dealing with the grape. And actually, some of the 2011s were very pleasant already. I like structure in wine. I don’t like too much mellowness and softness. So Sagrantino is my kind of grape.The family Lunelli at Tenuta Castelbuono (with an amazing cellar called Carapace) has a few tricks. “Sagrantino is powerful”, says Marcello Lunelli, “and we want to keep it typical but round and gentle. We get smooth tannins with late harvest and careful extraction during the fermentation. And we use large oak barrels instead of small barriques.”Tenuta Castelbuono Sagrantino 2010 has just the right amount of tannins and paired with a refreshing acidity it is a very pleasant wine. If you keep it for 10 years it will gain in complexity, like the 2004 that I tasted. Still fresh, still structured, with hints of tobacco, intense fruity aromas.Peter Heilborn at Tenuta Bellafonte loves Sagrantino. ”It is a difficult grape, but also easy because it has a lot of personality. Either you like it or you don’t”, is his opinion. I agree. Wines with personality are not liked by everyone. Which in this case is a good thing because the production of Sagrantino di Montefalco is quite small, coming from an area of only 700 hectares.Marco Caprai at the winery Arnaldo Caprai is the most famous producer here and also the pioneer in bringing fame to Sagrantino. When he started in the business in the 1970s Sagrantino was made as a sweet wine, a passito. Some hard working years later with experiments with different rootstocks, different pruning and a collaboration with University in Milan, Sagrantino emerges as a dry wine. In 1992 Sagrantino di Montefalco was awarded DOCG, the highest Italian wine classification.Having heard so much about the fierce tannins before coming here I was actually surprised to find so many elegant wines. As the Sagrantino 2009 from Filippo Antonelli at Antonelli San Marco winery. “2009 is admittedly a very warm year, but this is our style”, he says, “we never over extract, we always prefer elegance”.Valentino Valentini at Bocale has a tiny production from his 4 ½ hectares. For his Sagrantino he uses big barrels of 1000 liters for the ageing. “2009 was our last year working with barriques”, he says, “I don’t like the taste of wood in a Sagrantino”. The skin maceration, however, lasts 60 days at Bocale which is long. But the wines are not at all overpowering, only intense and very long in the mouth.Valentino Valentini of BocaleValentino Valentini of Bocale, copyright BKWine PhotographyThe Bocale Sagrantino di Montefalco 2011 is elegant with its perfumed aromas. But the tannins can be clearly felt and even though I could drink this with pleasure with a grilled côte de boeuf, this really is a wine for lying down in the cellar.The 2011 was the vintage that was released this spring. The rules on the minimum time the wines should be aged before selling are among the strictest in Italy. A Sagrantino di Montefalco has to be aged 37 months before being released on the market. At least 12 of these months must be spent in oak. In a world with more and more easy drinking wines for speedy consumption, Sagrantino di Montefalco is a rarity.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karlsson/2015/08/17/why-the-next-wine-in-your-wine-cellar-should-be-a-sagrantino-di-montefalco/

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