Italian Muscle

In the States we live in the world of super-sizing. Huge portions, the most, the best, the fastest and with wine often the most outrageous out-sized powerful stuff. I think there is a grape we've overlooked in our search for muscle...

Sagrantino is the super fruity and tannic powerful wine that historically was made sweet for the church in Umbria. It is far and away the perfect Italian wine introduction for a drinker of gigantic Shiraz, Zinfandel and really ripe Cali Cab. The one caveat being that it requires rich cooking preferably good beef (we were served Chianina, the famous lean Tuscan breed of beef, repeatedly with it).

Almost all the vineyard lands in the area around Montefalco were owned by the Roman Catholic Church, so of course they made wine for the sacrament. In the early part of the century the Church began to sell off lands. In the 70's the first dry (secco) versions of Sagrantino were made. I am sure the end product was vicious as it were fermented with the stems in those days.

We had a chance to visit with two very different growers Arnoldo Caprai (who has made the most commercially successful wines of the area from Sagrantino) and Filippo Antonelli (whom traditionalists seem to consider the most important grower).

Caprai has the winery that immediately brings to mind a Napa sort of operation. Tidy and sizable and making a number of different wines from local and international varietals. They make two bottlings. Collepiano, which has a bit less time in wood and less new wood, and the 25 Anni, which has two years in new oak. The 2001 is just monumental for 25 Anni.

Both wines have great depth of fruit, power and are tightly knit. Age will only ever undo the material so much. One can teach a Wild Boar to dance and wear a dress but you only get so much real grace or softness.

(The boars are a real plague here according to the growers - eating up grapes and hunting the truffles and digging them up).

Antonelli has a more typical feeling operation. The Fattoria is clearly a summer residence for the family that live full time in Rome but Filippo has made this his very full-time occupation. From the first years I tasted his wines ('97 vintage) to his current release (’03), his growth in skill has been apparent. Tannins are silkier, fruit is fresher and the minerality of the wines is more distinct. The ‘03 release is excellent (92 points). His ‘03 Rosso di Montefalco which is mostly Sangiovese is also very good having better aromatics than others we tasted (89 points).

Also along our route we went out of our way to try a few other Sagrantino producers that we had not seen. Two were excellent. The great value of the two was Scacciadiavoli. We tasted their ‘03, ‘01 and their sweet ‘03. All were excellent. Not as oxidative a style as Antonelli but with less wood than Caprai. These wines were just great natural material from a talented farmer. Even the ‘03 had great power without the dried fruit, syrupy character of the vintage. Maintaining freshness in ‘03 took some talent. Look for us to get these wines in the US in a few months. No one brings them now. (2001 - 92 points; 2003 93 points; 2003 sweet 90 points).