I’d never heard of Sagrantino di Montefalco before my brother visited Montefalco in 2000. I visited myself the next year. Since then I’ve had some Bea Pagliaros on release and liked them, but I don’t have a lot of experience with Sagrantinos with age. Two older bottles I bought in Italy were cooked. Some 1995s from the Terre di Trinci coop were OK through the late 2000s, but not that interesting.
This week I had the chance to taste through 12 Sagrantino di Montefalco from 1997 to 2008. These included big names like Bea (relatively traditional) and Caprai (heavy barrique usage).
My take-aways from the tasting:
• Though the sagrantino grape usually yields rustic wines, most of these were balanced, and even the 15% bruisers wore their alcohol lightly. If you’re in the mood for a wine that will stand up to grilled or BBQ meats or the like, these might scratch the itch.
• That said, I scored four of the 12 wines at 83 points or less, and that doesn’t include a badly corked bottle.
• I’d say these are better balanced on the whole than many Brunellos at these ages. The alcohol stands out less, they were clean (e.g., no conspicuous VA) and there was admirable mid-palate concentration, which I sometimes find lacking in Brunello. However:
• Even with 15 years of age, none had evolved much in the way of tertiary aromas. I get more of that in Brunello, typically.
• I was a bit surprised how much I liked the Caprai wines, which lean heavily on new oak. The combination of that and surly treatment on a visit there in 2001 left me skeptical about their wines. Meanwhile, I was surprised that I wasn’t more wowed by the 2004 Bea.
• I don’t regret putting my money on nebbiolo rather than sagrantino. At these prices, for my palate, you can find Barolo and Barbaresco that is much better balanced and with more potential to gain complexity.
The wines were served blindly. They had been decanted into serving bottles sometime ahead of the tasting, with the exception of the Caprai Spinning Beauty, which was arrived just as the tasting began. Most were purchased recently, and one (the ’99 Bea) appeared to have been poorly stored. The prices are those supplied by the organizer.
Listed in order of the group’s preference, with my ranking and point score in brackets.
Group #1 [my #1, 92+ points]
2007 Paulo Bea – Pagliaro ($98): Nice black cherry nose. Dense and tannic in the mouth but well balanced. Like a cantilever bridge, where all the elements are counterpoised. A beautiful young wine. Bea keeps his Sagrantino in steel tanks for 12 months followed by two years in large oak barrels.
Group #2 [my #7, 88 points]
2001 Milziade Antano ($65): A small, traditional producer. Maturing hints on the nose. Tight, tannic, with little fruit showing on the nose. A solid, balanced wine, but it didn’t really hold my interest.
Group #3 [my #6, 88 points]
1997 Caprai 25 Anni ($70, presumably some time ago): Gives little on the nose, save for a bit of reduction. In the mouth it’s big but balanced. Dense, good fruit, with tannins softening some. Improves with air. I have a bottle of this, which I’ll hold off on for another five to ten years. These spend two years in French oak.
Group #4 [my #3, 91 points]
2006 Tabarinni – Colle alle Cerqua ($55): Intense sour cherries on the nose, ripe but fresh – not overripe or jammy. In the mouth, the fruit seems older, less primary. Good balance and depth, and loads of tannin. Since 2003, Tabarinni has bottled his three vineyards separately.
Group #5 tie [my #9, 81 points]
2004 Caprai 25 Anni ($97): The nose is dominated by sweet new oak. Hard (wood?) tannins in the mouth. Not much for me to like here. Will the wood integrate, as it seems to have on the ’01 and ’97? Who knows. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Group #6/7 tie [my #2, 91 points]
2001 Caprai 25 Anni ($112): I got a bit of SO2 at first, but that quickly dissipated. (Note: I got other forms of reduction on the ’97 Caprai.) Tight, some dark fruit. Dense, well balanced. Lots of tannin. I liked this even though it’s still tautly sprung.
Group #6/7 tie [my #4, 89 points]
2004 Paulo Bea – Pagliaro ($91): Lighter in color. Lovely, sweet mature sour cherries on the nose. There is a slight new-oak-like note in the mouth, plus a lot of celery (which I like in reds). Nicely balanced, though the tannins are substantial. This faded substantially in the glass, however, which was odd. The only Bea I own.
Group #8 [my #10, 80 points]
2008 Tabarinni – Colle Grimaldesco ($55): Sweet maturing fruits, lots of celery on the nose. In the mouth: hot and with hard tannins. Out of balance. Hurts at the back of the mouth. Blecch. My score may be too generous.
Group #9 [my #8, 83 points]
2008 Scacciadiavoli ($25): Plummy nose, with a very slight note of oxidation there and in the mouth. Hard tannins, less fruit, but lots of licorice. This fleshed out with air, exposing more fruit, and my score is probably a bit low. I don’t think the oxidation note is worrisome, and this is good value. It’s tempting to buy a couple to see how it evolves over the next few years.
Group #10 [my #4, 89 points]
2006 Caprai – Spinning Beauty ($255): No, the price is not a typo. This is a new luxury bottling, which spends nine years in new French oak and two years in bottle. The name alludes to silk or cashmere spools, as the Caprai family owns a textiles business. This wine was not decanted ahead.
Lots and lots of new oak on the nose, plus some ripe black cherries. In the mouth, there’s more new wood. It’s well balanced notwithstanding a powerful tannic punch. Slight medicinal note, probably from the high ripeness and extended aging. Hard tannins at the back. When I retasted it toward the end, I wrote that my point score was probably too high. Certainly no value.
Group #11 [my #11, 79 points]
1999 Paulo Bea – Pagliaro ($120): Purchased from a private source recently, this appeared to have suffered bad storage. A pity. Maturing, caramelized smells on the nose – the sort of generic sweet smell you get with lots of warm-climate, big-bodied old reds. In the mouth, it’s somewhat caramelized and just tired. It’s to that generic old red stage. Potable but of no interest.
Group #12 [my #12, 50?? points]
2004 Tabarinni – Colle alle Macchie ($55): Really, really badly corked. Beneath that, there is a very good wine. Several of us felt this would have been near the top of the list if not for the overwhelming TCA.