2005 Montefalco Rosso Riserva Pipparello

How is Paolo Bea one of the few iconic producers in Italy to remain under the radar? It’s a combination of low quantity, releasing late, lack of desire to market themselves, and an unwillingness to submit wines for review to the press. Luckily, I’ve been collecting them for many years and was happy to pull well-stored vintages from my cellar for review.

The history of the Bea family is closely tied to Montefalco, going back as far as the 16th century. There is no winemaking wizardry and no chemicals in the vineyard or winery. Instead, it’s complete respect for what each vintage brings to the table, and the Bea family’s desire to bottle that expression, capturing the essence of terroir, without taking anything away. The current generation, represented by Giampiero and Giuseppe, continues to work their five hectares of vineyards by hand, choosing to use only one-third of their 15-hectare property for the production of grapes, even though they could easily continue planting to expand. Their vineyards occupy the higher elevations of Montefalco terroir, reaching up to 1,500 feet above sea level, and taking advantage of a diverse mix of soils. It’s here that they have begun to vineyard-designate their lineup of Sagrantino. In the winery, gentle macerations and slow fermentations can last from three weeks to as many as seven before the wine is placed into steel tanks for a year to rest, and then large neutral wood for up to two years. At this point, the wines are bottled without filtration and extremely low, if any, added sulfur, and left to rest for another year. This process is a long, painstaking effort that is extremely costly to the producer, but the Bea family insists on releasing wines that they deem ready to drink.

Giampiero Bea is one of Umbria's leading producers. The wines are made in a totally natural, non-interventionalist style, with no temperature control in fermentation, only natural yeasts and no added sulfites. At their best, these are wonderfully pure, expressive wines loaded with character. Because Bea lets nature runs its course, the wines are highly vintage sensitive. In great years the wines are typically fabulous but in weaker vintages the wines tend to reflect both the positive and negative attributes of those years to a higher degree than most wines these days. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on one's point of view, but there is no mistaking that when Bea has ideal conditions to work with his wines are stellar.