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DOCG · 2020 vintage · Bottle numbered by hand
Montefalco Sagrantino
DOCG
The most tannic grape in the world grows on half a hectare of old east-facing vineyard: 11 rows, planted between 2000 and 2001. About 2,500 bottles a year come out of it, and on every one I write the number by hand — the signature of the person who made it.
There are evenings that call for a wine that measures up: an important dinner, a dish that wants a serious companion. Sagrantino is that wine. Structure, concentration, a silky tannin that wraps around your palate and stays there. Take it to dinner and it will be the only wine anyone talks about.
€30 /bottle
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The tasting · slowly, as it should be
Eye, nose,
mouth
The eye
Deep, impenetrable ruby red with violet reflections. With the years it turns garnet, without ever losing the density that is Sagrantino’s signature.
The nose
A powerful bouquet: blackberry and blueberry to the fore, then plum, dark spice, leather and tobacco. With age come bitter cocoa and a balsamic edge. The thread running through it all is liquorice.
The mouth
Imposing but elegant structure. Silky tannins — like 1000-grit sandpaper: always there, but smooth and enveloping. Liquorice returns in the finish, like chewing on the root. Extraordinary length.
How it is made · patience and daily tasting
Tamed
with patience
It ferments in steel, at low temperatures — in recent years we have come down to around 21-22°C, to keep the fruit clean. The malolactic starts on its own, as soon as the alcoholic fermentation ends.
Then the wood: 12–14 months between tonneaux and a 12.5-quintal cask. That is enough — the tannins from this vineyard arrive already velvety. The rest is done by steel and by the bottle, up to the 33 months the appellation requires.
The details
From the cellar
Why do I number them by hand?
Because we make few bottles like this, and every one has passed through our hands — from the pruning to the label. The number written in pen is my way of telling you: I know this one, I answer for it.
Once you have tasted Sagrantino it stays with you: there is no more powerful wine than that. You are at the top, you are on the summit of the hill and you can see the whole view.— Giorgio Brunozzi
At the table
- Porchetta over the embers — the pairing I suggest myself
- Substantial dishes and serious meat
- Strong, fatty cheeses
- Game and braises
★ It is the perfect second bottle to bring to dinner: it sits on a higher plane and wipes out every trace of the wines before it.
Before you buy it, come and drink it here
Sagrantino makes sense among the rows where it was born