Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
peronospora but not oidium. The underside
of its leaf is hairy and so is often the home of
damaging spiders; the variety also suffers mag-
nesium defi ciency and so can present dissec-
tion of the stem, especially with the SO4
rootstock.
Sagrantino's home is Umbria, but given the
high quality of its wines, Sagrantino has been
planted elsewhere: for example, Alessio Planeta
of the famous Sicilian estate of Planeta told me
it does very well in some parts of Sicily. Sagran-
tino has done well on non-Italian soil as well. In
Australia it has been planted in areas as diverse
as McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley,
King Valley, Adelaide Hills, Murray Darling,
and Hunter Valley. In the United States, it is
grown in Dry Creek Valley and Central Valley.
It has also been planted in Argentina.
wine categories, but there is no mention of a
dry sagrantino). Though the most famous
sagrantino of all is the 25 Anni made by the
world-renowned Arnaldo Caprai estate (the
Caprai family is to be commended for all they
have done for the variety), one of the best and
oldest sagrantinos is that of Adanti, whose fi rst
real winemaker was a fashion designer. Wine-
maker Alvaro Palini, an old friend of owner
Domenico Adanti, had been a successful fash-
ion designer in Florence, Milan, and Paris.
From 1962 to 1974 he worked in Paris with
Franklin Shauman, creator of the world-famous
Sisley brand (now owned by Benetton), and
some of his creations have graced the pages of
magazines such as
Vogue.
He loved wine and
spent plenty of his free time in Bordeaux and
Burgundy, drinking great wines and learning
the aspects of modern winemaking. Most of
what he needed to know he had already learned
during childhood, by observing his grandfa-
ther make wine from the family's few Sagran-
tino vines. One day, Domenico, so fed up with
Palini's incessant criticism of the Adanti wine,
angrily challenged Palini to do better. Palini
never looked back: he lowered yields, enforced
parcel-by-parcel harvesting at only optimal
ripeness levels, and concentrated on making a
dry wine. Results were quick to arrive, and
Palini became a much listened to expert wine-
maker in the area. His 1980 sagrantino was
one of the fi rst ever produced and commercially
available; on its heels, wines became available
from the Cantina Cooperativa di Foligno and
the Tardiola estate (the latter does not exist any-
more). Arnaldo Caprai bought his estate in
1971 and planted 5.5 hectares in 1973; its suc-
cesses and example spawned huge interest in
Sagrantino and the Montefalco area, and now
there are numerous valid producers to choose
from.
If the high polyphenol content allows the
wine to age well, this tannic wealth is also
a hindrance. Sagrantino is Italy's most tannic
red wine, by far. All too often the wines are
hard and unyielding, and no amount of cellar
time will reduce their stubbornly tannic aura.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
The DOCG wine is called Montefalco Sagran-
tino. Montefalco Rosso is sagrantino's baby
brother but, unlike its sibling, is not 100 per-
cent Sagrantino, containing Sangiovese and
other varieties.
Today, the wine is produced in the area
around the towns of Montefalco, Bevagna,
Gualdo Cattaneo, Giano dell'Umbria, and Cas-
tel Ritaldi. Researchers also found biotypes
sporadically grown near Macerata (in the
Marche). There are clear-cut differences in
style between Sagrantino wines made in differ-
ent areas of the production zone, much as the
Bordeaux of Saint-Estèphe are different than
those of Margaux. For instance, the Sagrantino
wines of Montefalco is more structured yet
refi ned, those of Bevagna more fl oral, and
those of Castel Ritaldi and Gualdo Cattaneo
softer and readier to drink. In general, Sagran-
tino does best on clay-containing soils, though
it performs well on loam-rich ones as well.
Despite its fame, dry sagrantino is a rela-
tively young wine; in centuries past, sagrantino
was always sweet (the 1898
L'It a li a e n o l o g i c a
listed winners of a national wine fair, with the
gold medal won by a sagrantino from Argante
Pagliochini from Bevagna in the red and white
