Paolo Bea - Pagliaro Secco Sagrantino di Montefalco, 2010
The archives of Montefalco document the presence of the Bea family in the area as early as 1500. Paolo founded the estate in the 1980s, when he started to produce wine. He runs the family business, helped by his two sons Giuseppe and Giampiero. Today the domain consists of 15 hectares. The estate is really a typical Italian fattoria (farm): the Bea use only one third of their land to produce wine. In the remainder, they grow fruit and vegetables (including olives) and raise farm animals.
This Sagrantino di Montefalco is sourced from the Pagliaro vineyard, which has an altitude of 400 metres. The wine is aged for one year in stainless steel, two years in Slavonian casks and one more year in bottle – before finally being released. Essentially, the wine is not put on the market before its 4th year after harvest. The sagrantino, like all Bea’s wines, is unfiltered.
The wine appears an intense ruby, inky and dark as the night. On the nose, it’s broody, deep, with intensely concentrated and ripe flavours. Brambly black fruit forms the cornerstone of the wine’s aromas with the presence of blackcurrant, cassis and black raspberry. Hints of resinated fruit are also present. In particular, black figs, dark sultanas, prunes. The profound fruitiness is coated by layers of fragrant spiciness such as liquorice, black currant leaves, black tea and dried Mediterranean shrubs. Oak is beautifully integrated, showing as harmonious nuances of cedar box, smoked wood and cloves. Hints of meat, earth and tobacco suggest an early stage of evolution. A very complex nose, intense, focused, concentrated.
On the palate, the wine is really full in body, extremely dense with a mouth coating texture that diffuses the intense flavours poignantly in your mouth. The black fruit aromas are at the wine’s core, mostly bramble and resinated fruit. Suggestions of tobacco, liquorice, earth, undergrowth, meat, dried herbs add more complexity. A delicate toasty edge ties everything up splendidly. The perfect high acidity balances the full flavours, making this wine precise and focused. The tannins are really high here but are extraordinarily fine-grained and smooth. Pure velvet in your mouth. The flavours linger forever, contributing to a wonderfully long finish. Truly terrific. A king among Sagrantino wines!