Arnaldo Caprai

(MONTEFALCO – PERUGIA) In Montefalco the Arnaldo Caprai company produces red wine such as Montefalco Sagratino Riserva 25 years, with which it has upset all previous beliefs about the Sagratino grape. Its Sangiovese-based red wines are the best that can be found outside of Tuscany.

Arnaldo Caprai’s History and Philosophy

Various producers working in areas previously known for workmanlike, but hardly inspired, wines, have managed, with a new commitment to quality and a new technical ability both in the vineyard and the cellars, to demonstrate that there was an important undiscovered potential waiting to be developed. But it is rare case indeed when a producer, working in an area which is both little considered and known, if at all, for a wine of no particular interest, manages not only to offer outstanding wines but to create, virtually ex nihilo, an appellation which previously hardly existed.

In this case, we are talking precisely of the biography of Marco Caprai who, as a young man, took over operations at the family-owned winery located at Montefalco in Umbria, a small hilltop town to the south of Assisi. As in all of central Italy, wine was produced to satisfy local needs, but few had ever heard of it outside of the immediate area. And the principal grape utilized, Sagrantino, was perhaps even less known. The source of rough and rugged, highly tannic wines, the variety was considered unsuitable for drinking as an accompaniment to meals and residual sugar was normally left in the wines to make them palatable drinking at the end of a meal.

The wines of Arnaldo Caprai

Enter Caprai who, with the assistance of some of Italy̓s most talented consulting professionals, revolutionized both the viticulture and the winemaking of this difficult and challenging grape, creating his the legendary wine Montefalco Sagrantino Riserva 25 anni. The wines were, and remained, concentrated and intense, potent stuff indeed, but rich, long, and sumptuous as well, a great wine for selective palates, those for example, who love Château Latour, the virile wines of France’s Hermitage hill, and the California Cabernet of Randy Dunn.

A shrewd marketer as well, Caprai quickly recognized that his house could not survive solely as a producer of this wine, particularly now that acreage under vine has now grown to an impressive 337 acres. Sangiovese was early given an important role, and his is some of the best produced in central Italy, Tuscany included. The line is rounded out by a well made Grechetto-based white wine as well. And the zone, which once consisted of a few scattered vines, now boast over 2500 acres of vineyards thanks to this one man band.

Montefalco Sagratino Riserva 25 anni

Info & Contacts Arnaldo Caprai

Address: Località Torre, 06036 Montefalco (PG)
Tel: +39 0742 378802
Website:www.arnaldocaprai.it
e-mail:info@arnaldocaprai.it
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