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# 70 •OCTOBER 19 , 2015
producing in the early 1960’s. Last year
was a tough year for Umbria as well as
many other regions within Italy and 80%
of the olive harvest were lost. They started producing wine in 2000.
Antonelli
Ssagrantino is a grape that has good
structure and a good quality of tannins.
Tannins that aren't drying, but ripe tannins that help with ageability. They are
the muscles in the wine. A request to
change the laws within the appellation
to increase the amount of sangiovese
and sagrantino allowed in the wines of
this area. This allows producers to use
native varieties at higher percentage
levels. In the past smaller barrels were
used that extracted more where today
larger barrels are used that extract less.
In the last decade Antonelli’s best vintages of sagrantino were '04, '06, '08 and
'10. This wine retails for $40-45 and their
importers are Omni Wine (NY), Grappoli
(DC), Cream Wine (Chicago), Tosca Wines (CA).
Perticaia
The '11 Perticaia Montefalco Rosso
blends with their sangiovese the colorino grape, which is used a lot within the
region of Tuscany in the wines of Chianti.
It helps smooth out the sangiovese. Perticaia uses stainless steel for their wine
production. Balance is important for
Perticaia to extract the sweetness of tannin as well as extraction of flavor and color. A short maceration doesn’t reduce
tannins because they macerate some of
their wines for over 60 days. Many factors come into play including how many
times a day they do pumpovers as well
as the temperature of the maceration.
This wine retails for $25 and their impor- Scacciadiavoli
ters vary state to state with Ideal Wines The 2008 that Liu shared was a traditional vintage for them. It was first fer(MA), Artisan Wines (CA), Zigzigando.
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