Sagrantino

Also known as Sagrantino di Montefalco.

Sagrantino is a dark-skinned red grape native to the hills around Montefalco in the Umbrian province of Perugia, where it remains almost entirely concentrated. Long grown for a sweet passito wine made from dried grapes and tied to local religious feast days, it was reinvented from the 1970s onward as a dry red, and today anchors the Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG. Its name is often linked to the Latin sacer (sacred), a nod to its historic use in devotional and holiday wines.

Sagrantino is celebrated for an extraordinarily high concentration of polyphenols and tannins, and is frequently cited as one of the most tannin-rich grape varieties in the world. It produces deeply colored, powerful, full-bodied reds built for long ageing, with flavors of blackberry, black cherry, plum, and earthy, spicy notes. The DOCG requires extended ageing before release, and the wines can need years in bottle for their formidable tannins to soften.