Paolo Bea Cerrete Montefalco Sagrantino Secco 2017

Paolo Bea Cerrete Montefalco Sagrantino Secco 2017

Paolo Bea
$175.00

Grape: Sagrantino
Vintage: 2017
Type: Red

This single-vineyard red wine is an expressive interpretation of Sagrantino from the elevated Cerrete parcel in Montefalco. Giampiero Bea manages the hilltop site organically at fifteen-hundred feet altitude, where vines grow in clay-limestone and gravel soils. The winemaking features a prolonged forty-to-fifty day skin maceration driven entirely by native wild yeasts without temperature control. The wine matures for years in large neutral Slavonian oak barrels and is bottled unfiltered without added sulfites.

It pours an opaque, dark garnet color, releasing complex aromas of blackberry compote, wild plum, tobacco, and exotic spices. On the palate, the full-bodied, robust frame pairs concentrated dark fruit flavors with a serious, fine-grained tannin structure. Savory layers of iron, cedar, and a deep umami baseline fold into a dense mouthfeel that shows great complexity. A clean thread of natural acidity cuts through the concentration, keeping the profile focused. It finishes long, bone-dry, and persistent.

Paolo Bea is one of the great reference points for traditional, natural-minded wine in Umbria. Based in Montefalco, the Bea family farms Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Montepulciano and local white varieties with a deep respect for mixed agriculture and the rhythms of the farm. The wines are fermented spontaneously, often macerated for long periods, bottled without filtration and released only when they feel ready. They can be powerful, tannic and uncompromising, but they also carry warmth, honesty and a profound connection to place. Bea's wines are not designed to flatter quickly; they ask the drinker to meet them on their own terms.