The Winemaker’s Experience in Umbria

I came to Umbria expecting unimpressive white wines that I was very familiar with. Instead I found varieties that I had never heard of that had extraordinary character. The grapes that I was most impressed with were Grechetto and Malvasia.

In the red grapes I expected to find high acid Sangiovese wines and instead I have discovered Sagrantino and Negromaro. These are incredible dark rich red wines with lovely tannin structure that will allow the wine to age for many years. We had the opportunity to taste both that were more than twelve years old and found them to age perfectly. Both of these reds made delightful rose’ wines.

I was also impressed with the different training systems in the vineyard. They ranged from quadrilateral cordon to low unilateral cordon (only 1 foot off of the ground) to close spacing head trained ( 1 meter by 2 meters) to California/Texas style cordon training at 40 inches above the ground.

The amazing experience of Umbria is to see the signs of a 2000 year old civilization as well as the excitement of a modern Italian industry propelling it into the future. Please visit wine pleasures for more.