Paolo Bea, Montefalco Rosso Riserva Pipparello, Umbria, Italy 2018

60% Sangiovese, 25% Montepulciano and 15% Sagrantino

The Paolo Bea Pipparello is brooding and intense in its concentration. The ultra-savory nose is a thick swamp of camphor, black olives, fresh tar, and sandalwood, with pretty high-toned spices lurking in the background. Its palate is arrestingly dense, yet it carries an incredible amount of energy given its overall disposition. This is a rough-and-tumble, wholly uncompromising wine without a polite bone in its body, yet it still manages to be erudite and nuanced — an embodiment of the spirit of the Bea style at its most extreme.

The Pipparello vineyard is a hilltop site in Montefalco at 1300 feet above sea level. The soil is clay and gravel. The vines in the Pipparello vineyard are a minimum of 20 years old. Harvest takes place normally during the middle of October. The cuvaison extends for a period between 40 to 50 days. After the alcoholic fermentation this wine spends a year in stainless steel tanks and then two years in large oak barrels and is released after an additional year of bottle-aging.