We the Italians October 19, 2015 - 70 | Page 40

th # 70 • OCTOBER 19 , 2015 read more about #Italian Wine ITALIAN WINE: Immersion in Umbrian wine with Sagrantino By Jennifer Gentile Martin for www.vinotravelsitaly.com The vines in Montefalco are rather young and only about 15 years old. The traditional version of sagrantino was more of a passito, dried grapes, style, which is still produced today. These wines are sweeter in style, but due to the strength of the tannins it doesn't produce a cloying wine. A lot has changed in the area from 15 years ago when there were only 100 hectacres and today there are about 700 hectacres and 70 producers. Here are some highlights from the panel discussing sagrantino. ter in the first days of October this harvest. Colpetrone produces more than 200,000 bottles with majority of the wines under the Montefalco Rosso label so it's a very important wine for them. Their '11 Montefalco Rosso is made up of 70% sangiovese, 15% merlot and 15% sagrantino. The choice of the grapes blended on the Montefalco Rosso is the particular style of the winery and the grapes they choose for the blends. Retails for $14 and the importer in the USA is Vias Imports. Colpetrone They just started harvesting the sangiovese and merlot grapes. Sagrantino, the flagship wine of Umbria, is harvested la- Terre de la Custodia This winery is not currently present in the USA with their wines, but only with their extra virgin olive oil which they started 40 | WE THE ITALIANS www.wetheitalians.com