2017 Paolo Bea Cerrete Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG, Italy

It is difficult to believe that Montefalco Sagrantino can get any more profound than Beas beloved Pagliaro, but indeed it can. The family has owned a parcel in Cerrete, the highest-altitude vineyard in Montefalco, for some time, but it wasnt until the 2007 vintage that Giampiero deemed the vines old enough to do justice to the crus potential. With its poor, mineral-rich soils and its acidity-preserving altitude (450 to 500 meters), Cerrete yields a wine not more powerful than Pagliaroin fact, it comes across as lighter on its feetbut with greater nuance, as if the settings on a microscope were dialed up to render even more detail. In acknowledgment of its stature, Giampiero gives it an additional year in large Slavonian oak, making for an astonishing five-year elevage before the requisite long resting period in Beas dark, cool bottle cellar. – Madrose