A UNIQUE GRAPE IN THE WORLD FOR ITS STRUCTURE AND LONGEVITY, THE NATIVE SAGRANTINO VARIETY TELLS THE STORY OF UMBRIA AND ITS PEOPLE
The Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG is made from the grape of the same name, cultivated not only in Montefalco but also in the Umbrian municipalities of Bevagna, Gualdo Cattaneo, Giano dell’Umbria, and Castel Ritaldi, all within the province of Perugia.
THE FRUIT
With its medium-sized berries and blue-black color, Sagrantino is one of the grapes with the highest polyphenol content in the world, including anthocyanins, responsible for its ruby-violet hue, and tannins, which give this wine its signature structure and character.
Traditionally produced in its passito version, in 1992 Montefalco Sagrantino was awarded the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status for both the dry and passito versions. The Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG production area features hilly terrains not far from Assisi, Foligno, Todi, and Spoleto, with elevations ranging from 220 to 472 meters above sea level. Despite its limited expanse, it offers varied exposures and slopes, annual rainfall ranging between 800 and 1100 mm, and rare snowfall.
CHARACTERIZED BY BALANCE, COMPLEXITY, AND DISTINCTIVE TANNINS
THE SOILS
The soils of the Montefalco Sagrantino production area are part of the deposits of the southeastern branch of the Tiber basin, occupying the Spoletana Valley, also known today as Valle Umbra (valleys of the Topino and Maroggia rivers).
The entire Denomination area features highly heterogeneous deposits from the Pleistocene era, alternating gravelly pebbles, sandy soils, monogranular sands, and clayey silts. In general, the Sagrantino production zone is characterized by clay-based soils. The grape prefers training systems such as cordon spur and guyot. The former features a permanent cordon with several spurs from which fruiting shoots grow. The latter presents multiple fruit-bearing canes, renewed annually during pruning.
GRAPE CHARACTERISTICS
Sagrantino is a late-ripening grape, with small, dark berries featuring thick, polyphenol-rich skins, resistant to mold and pests.
Full tannin ripeness, first in the vineyard and then in the cellar, helps create excellent balance and a complex bouquet of fruity, spicy, and toasted notes, while softening the pronounced tannins.
MONTEFALCO SAGRANTINO DOCG AND MONTEFALCO ROSSO DOC
The prince of Montefalco, Sagrantino has an intrinsic structure whose secret lies in the type and concentration of its tannins, giving it a charismatic flavor. For this reason, its grapes are used purely to produce the famous Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG, or blended with other varieties for Montefalco Rosso DOC.
In its youth, Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG displays a deep ruby red color with violet hues, evolving into dense garnet with aging. On the nose, it often evokes forest fruits, blackberries, plums, and leather, perfectly balanced with a light touch of vanilla from barrel aging. On the palate, it stands out for its marked, warm, and structured tannins. In the passito version, produced in small quantities, the wine shows a ruby red color with violet or garnet hues when aged, and on the nose, recognizable notes of blackberry jam and cocoa.
SAGRANTINO THROUGHOUT HISTORY
During the Renaissance, Montefalco wine was already renowned and appreciated as a fine wine. In 1451, the famous Florentine painter Benozzo Gozzoli, invited by the Franciscans to fresco the apse of their church—today the Civic Museum of Montefalco—painted a bottle of red wine on the banquet table of the Knight from Celano.
The first document citing the “Sagrantina” grape dates back to 1549. This was followed by a notebook from the Assisi notary Giovan Maria Nuti, dated 1598, mentioning the widespread custom in Foligno of blending Sagrantino into musts to impart aroma and flavor.
The famous Itriola grape is also mentioned in De naturali vinorum historia, de vinis Italiae e de convivijs antiquorum, a seminal work on Renaissance Italian oenology, published in 1595 by physician and naturalist Andrea Bacci, who deemed it particularly suitable for producing Muscat wines and noted its frequent presence in Bevagna, Narni, and Amelia.
Year after year, viticulture gained significance in the rural economy, and municipal statutes began to enforce bans and sanctions to protect vine cultivation and grape production. In 1622, Cardinal Boncompagni, papal legate in Perugia, stiffened these penalties, stating <<[...] the punishment of hanging for anyone who cuts down a grapevine [...]>>.
FROM THE ROMAN ERA
According to some scholars, the origins of Sagrantino date back to Roman times. Pliny the Elder may have referred to it in his Natural History when mentioning the 'Itriola' grape typical of Umbria and Bevagna and the Piceno territory.
Others believe Sagrantino seeds arrived in Montefalco around the mid-15th century, brought by Franciscan friars from Asia Minor.
Others theorize that it was spread during the Middle Ages by Byzantine monks coming from Greece.
UNTIL THE MIDDLE AGES
It was during the Middle Ages, due to the importance of wine in liturgy, that vine cultivation spread not only in the countryside but also within monasteries and convents. Some interpretations suggest that the name Sagrantino is linked to the meaning of “sacred,” deriving from its use as sacramental wine.
In the Middle Ages, vineyards were central to how people and communities organized their lives. This is evidenced by the Church of San Bartolomeo, one of the oldest parishes in Montefalco, documented as early as 1219, whose external apse wall features, alongside typical medieval motifs, a lunette window adorned with vine shoots and grape clusters.
Additional evidence includes numerous documents highlighting vines and grapes, preserved today in Montefalco’s Historical Archives.
CONTEMPORARY AGE AND DOCG RECOGNITION
The emblematic wine of Montefalco and its surrounding hills received DOC recognition on October 30, 1979, and DOCG status on November 5, 1992, under the name Montefalco Sagrantino, marking two milestones in the region’s recent development.
As early as 1829, historian Giovanni Calindri listed Montefalco among the top regions for its wines in his “Geographical, Historical, Statistical Essay on the Papal Territory.” The Sagrantino was recognized as an anciently cultivated variety in Umbria by the Ampelographic Commission of the Foligno district (Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Bullettino Ampelografico, 1879, XII, p. 34) and in 1893 by Guglielmo Baldeschi in The Vineyards and Wines of Umbria.
In 1925, at the Umbrian Wine Exhibition, Montefalco was defined as the region’s most important winemaking town, leading in specialized vineyard cultivation with an average annual output of over 14000 pounds of grapes per hectare, confirming Sagrantino’s typically modest yields.
In 1971, Umbria’s Development Authority launched an experimental production of Sagrantino wine, and the following year the Foligno Cooperative Winery began producing dry Sagrantino.
In 1973, the application for DOC Montefalco recognition was submitted, and after six years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry published the decree establishing the Denomination of Controlled Origin (DOC) for Montefalco Rosso and Montefalco Sagrantino in both Dry and Passito versions, followed by DOCG status in 1992. The production regulations set strict conditions and guidelines for the environment and vineyard cultivation practices in order to safeguard the unique characteristics of the grapes and resulting wines.