Paolo Bea 'Cerrete' 2019 Sagrantino Secco Montefalco, Umbria

750ml bottle

15.5% abv

For a wine clocking in at 15.5% alcohol, the 2019 Cerrete shows astonishing balance. Brooding and intense with black cherry, spice, forest floor, and meaty notes. Very structured with bold tannins, but surprisingly graceful due to its acidity and terroir. Primed for long-term aging.

FARMING: Organic
VARIETY: 100% Sagrantino
TERROIR: The Cerrete vineyard, one of the highest-altitude sites in Montefalco, features poor, mineral-rich soils and acidity-preserving altitude. The Bea family has owned this parcel for some time, but it wasn't until the 2007 vintage that Giampiero deemed the vines old enough to do justice to the cru's potential. The 2019 vintage brought a warm, dry summer balanced by diurnal temperature shifts.
VINIFICATION: 29-day maceration on skins with native yeasts. No temperature control, no pumping, no fining, no filtering.
AGING: Nearly 4 years in cask.

Sourced from the estate’s highest, most mineral-driven vineyard, where low-yielding vines produce intensely concentrated fruit. The wine undergoes a long, 45-day native-yeast maceration, followed by roughly one year in stainless steel and an extended 43 months in large Slavonian oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, emphasizing purity, structure, and the raw power of high-altitude Sagrantino.

For over four decades, Azienda Agricola Paolo Bea has been making some of Italy's most uncompromising, singular wines. The Bea family has been documented in Montefalco since 1500, crafting boisterous, wild expressions of Umbria's sun-drenched hills. As a co-founder of the ViniVeri ("Real Wine") movement, Giampiero refuses shortcuts: no green harvesting, no sorting, no temperature regulation, no pumping, no fining, no filtering. Just patience and trust in time over technology.

97 Points, Vinous Media:
“The 2019 Montefalco Sagrantino Cerrete is a dark beast of a Sagrantino, bursting from the glass with an aromatic display that reminds me more of food than wine. The bouquet mixes cherry sauce, ginger and clove with hints of seared meat and flowery underbrush. It opens with a pleasant inner sweetness and velvety textures, as balsamic spice complicates a dense wave of ripe red and black fruits. Through it all, zesty acidity maintains a fantastic balance as the 2019 leaves black tea-like tannins and a lingering licorice resonance.”