The Sultry Arnaldo Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino
Complex aromas, deep black and blue fruit, mouth coating tannins, and an earthy, sensuous core that unfolds within a powerful structure, the mystique of Sagrantino di Montefalco slowly reveals itself over time. Time is required to appreciate its charms, as it needs lots of time to develop its complex bouquet and tame its wild tannins, but patience will be rewarded with an ethereal, sensory experience like no other.
Sagrantino is a really big Italian dry red wine, like Barolo, Barbaresco, Amarone, and Aglianico, yet it began it’s existence as a “Passito” or sweet wine, produced by Franciscan monks for religious rites. The Sagrantino grape has been grown in the region of Montefalco for over 400 years, but it had been lost over time, until over 40 years ago, when Arnaldo Caprai pioneered a renaissance. Arnaldo’s son, Marco, embraced the opportunity to revive one of Umbria’s most historic wines, with a modern spin. Research and experimentation, in collaboration with the University of Milan, has transformed Arnaldo Caprai into one of Umbria’s leading producers, based on bringing back Sagrantino from the brink of extinction. Today, this enigmatic, thick-skinned grape has roared back to life, grown only here and nowhere else in the world. Thanks to the passion of Caprai, and a newfound appreciation among wine drinkers, Sagrantino wine is joining the ranks of the world’s elite red wines, aging effortlessly, seemingly evolving for decades.
Usually Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG is a brooding, masculine wine, with intense aromatics, whose best wines are so tight and tannic in their youth that it takes years of aging to approach them. The Arnaldo Caprai modernist point of view strives to make the wine approachable sooner. Their wines are more polished yet channel the same big dark fruit, raisin, exotic spice, cocoa, and earthy brawn of traditional Sagrantino, still needing lots of time in the bottle to soften the tannins, at least 5-7 years.
The Arnaldo Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino 2010 is sultry, so heady in its aromatics that you want to dive in! Its juicy acidity, cloaked in a medium tannic skeleton, is hung with dense fleshy fruit of black plums, black cherry, blackberry, blueberry and boysenberry, accented with a hint of balsamic. Full bodied and stylish with complex undertones of tobacco, clove spice, dried herbs, and underbrush, this Sagrantino is not a tannic monster but if compared to a ballroom dance, it would be the Argentine Tango. An interplay of tension between lush and structured, dark and dried fruit, earth and spice, you can liken this modern Sagrantino to an “iron fist in a velvet glove”, seductive in its sensory memory. This is a lot of wine for the price, SRP $54, but can be found for less in some specialty wine shops.
Sagrantino is a wine whose structure and bouquet usher in the sensory delights of autumn, complimenting the rich dishes of roasted meats, game, charcuterie, aged Parmegiano cheeses, and black winter truffles. In order to fully appreciate Collepiano, decant for at least an hour to allow the full expression of this beautiful wine to awaken.
The Arnaldo Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino 2010 is a wine with a hauntingly beautiful inner beauty, that once tasted, you will never forget.
Complex aromas, deep black and blue fruit, mouth coating tannins, and an earthy, sensuous core that unfolds within a powerful structure, the mystique of Sagrantino di Montefalco slowly reveals itself over time. Time is required to appreciate its charms, as it needs lots of time to develop its complex bouquet and tame its wild tannins, but patience will be rewarded with an ethereal, sensory experience like no other.
Sagrantino is a really big Italian dry red wine, like Barolo, Barbaresco, Amarone, and Aglianico, yet it began it’s existence as a “Passito” or sweet wine, produced by Franciscan monks for religious rites. The Sagrantino grape has been grown in the region of Montefalco for over 400 years, but it had been lost over time, until over 40 years ago, when Arnaldo Caprai pioneered a renaissance. Arnaldo’s son, Marco, embraced the opportunity to revive one of Umbria’s most historic wines, with a modern spin. Research and experimentation, in collaboration with the University of Milan, has transformed Arnaldo Caprai into one of Umbria’s leading producers, based on bringing back Sagrantino from the brink of extinction. Today, this enigmatic, thick-skinned grape has roared back to life, grown only here and nowhere else in the world. Thanks to the passion of Caprai, and a newfound appreciation among wine drinkers, Sagrantino wine is joining the ranks of the world’s elite red wines, aging effortlessly, seemingly evolving for decades.
Usually Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG is a brooding, masculine wine, with intense aromatics, whose best wines are so tight and tannic in their youth that it takes years of aging to approach them. The Arnaldo Caprai modernist point of view strives to make the wine approachable sooner. Their wines are more polished yet channel the same big dark fruit, raisin, exotic spice, cocoa, and earthy brawn of traditional Sagrantino, still needing lots of time in the bottle to soften the tannins, at least 5-7 years.
The Arnaldo Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino 2010 is sultry, so heady in its aromatics that you want to dive in! Its juicy acidity, cloaked in a medium tannic skeleton, is hung with dense fleshy fruit of black plums, black cherry, blackberry, blueberry and boysenberry, accented with a hint of balsamic. Full bodied and stylish with complex undertones of tobacco, clove spice, dried herbs, and underbrush, this Sagrantino is not a tannic monster but if compared to a ballroom dance, it would be the Argentine Tango. An interplay of tension between lush and structured, dark and dried fruit, earth and spice, you can liken this modern Sagrantino to an “iron fist in a velvet glove”, seductive in its sensory memory. This is a lot of wine for the price, SRP $54, but can be found for less in some specialty wine shops.
Sagrantino is a wine whose structure and bouquet usher in the sensory delights of autumn, complimenting the rich dishes of roasted meats, game, charcuterie, aged Parmegiano cheeses, and black winter truffles. In order to fully appreciate Collepiano, decant for at least an hour to allow the full expression of this beautiful wine to awaken.
The Arnaldo Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino 2010 is a wine with a hauntingly beautiful inner beauty, that once tasted, you will never forget.