2005 Sagrantino di Montefalco Pagliaro

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.

My visit with Giampiero Bea was illuminating, as we spent several hours tasting through virtually every wine in the cellar. Bea has a number of promising wines in cask that should satisfy the cravings of his most passionate fans. Among the wines that will be released in coming years is a new Sagrantino from the Rignano vineyard which is a stone's throw from the winery. The new cellar, still under construction, is decidely stark and minimalist in style. Bea pursues a natural, non-interventionalist approach. The wines undergo fermentation without temperature control, using only ambient yeasts. Malolactic fermentation takes place in steel, though here too, the timing and pace is dictated by nature. The wines are neither fined nor filtered prior to being bottled, and all important operations are undertaken according to the lunar calendar. To be sure, this is high-risk winemaking. The results can be striking, but they can also be quite variable when nature decides to be capricious. Bea prefers hot vintages such as 2003 and 2007, so it is no surprise he is most excited about those vintages. While those wines certainly possess impressive concentration, my sense is he might be able to do more in less favorable years like 2004 and 2005, where some of the wines lack a touch of depth. Bea's labels contain a wealth of information about the vintage and how each wine was made, although the notes are only printed in Italian. Longtime fans of the wines will notice that in recent years the specific names of the vineyards have taken greater prominence in the labels. The Bea wines are all about subtlety, grace and elegance. At their best, they are among the finest wines to emerge from Montefalco, and Italy, for that matter.