Arnaldo Caprai '25 Ani' Sagrantino di Montefalco 2001

Another casual dinner at home on our days off. As Kara plowed through an episode of America's Next Top model, I was plowing through some Marc Bredif Vouvray 2004. I've been holding on to this bottle since its release, curious about its age-ability. It's held up surprisingly well. Still very focused with honeyed notes of Golden Delicious apple, citrus, quince and very minor amounts of that wet-wooly Chenin tone. This is a user-friendly Vouvray that's built for the masses, showing less minerality and more obvious fruit character. Probably still has a few more years in it, too. And it was a fine match for my truffle cheese.

For dinner, I opened an Arnaldo-Caprai '25 Ani' Sagrantino di Montefalco 2001. Marco Caprai is akin to the Robert Mondavi of Sagrantino in Umbria. His mission was to make this relatively unknown grape into a world-class wine. He began his mission back in the 1970's and seems to have succeeded, gaining popularity for his many wines and turning his facility into a full-scale and massive operation. In 1991, he helped in earning Sagrantino di Montefalco a DOCG status and truly securing its place in the world market. He offers two bottlings of Sagrantino (three, if you count the Passito), the best of which is the 25 Ani, made from the best lots.

Sagrantino, if you've never had it, is a beast. It's simply one of the most tannic wines you'll ever have, but also balanced by dark, ripe fruit and with a layer of earth. It reminds me in many ways of domestic Petite Syrah, with its dark, jammy fruits and leeching, herbal tannin. This bottling was no exception: Ripe plum and blackberry, with roasted coffee, ground baking spices and Italian dirt. Lush on the palate, until the tannins take hold and wring your tongue dry, demanding that you have another bite of red meat.


Kara I were fortunate enough to spend National Wine Day at Arnaldo-Caprai when we visited Umbria. The winery, which is enormous, had a walking tour through the vineyard with five stops, each offering a different dish and Caprai wine to match. At the final stop, the party really took off with a live band. It was a madhouse, but an amazing experience. On a hot summer day, as it was, the Grecante (made from Grechetto grapes) was really hitting the spot.

As I was enjoying the New York and Long-Grain Wild Rice with the Sagrantino, I noted that the wine really wasn't delivering as much as I would have liked on the palate. The nose was so perfumey and enticing, almost like a theoretical combination of a new and old Bordeaux mixed in the same glass. But the wine fell a little too flat on the palate. I noted that I was drinking from the over-sized Riedel Cabernet stem, which George had called his "troublemaker". I opened a half bottle of Anakota Cabernet the night before and had the same experience with that wine. The glass, perhaps? Could it possibly be George Riedel coming back to haunt me?!


I brought out the Hermitage glass for comparison. The nose was much less perfumed and expansive from this stem. The aromas were more focused, like a laser beam to the nostrils. The complexity of the nose remained, but the alcohol and volatile acidity (nail polish remover) were turned up a notch. It would be difficult to match the beauty of the nose achieved from the Cabernet glass. However, on the palate, the wine from the Hermitage glass gave me the desired balance and flavors I was expecting from the Sagrantino. The rich fruit giving way to the even more emphasized tannins and fruit seed bitterness. I definitely preferred this glass on the palate.

So- what to do? Like a real wine geek, I smelled the wine from the Cabernet glass and sipped from the Hermitage glass. Yeah - I know it's weird, but I get to fall back on the fact that it's my job. How are you going to explain that you want two different glasses the next time you go out to a restaurant...? Well, you could always tell them I told you so...