2017 Vini Conestabile della Staffa Umbria Rosso

Region: Umbria < Italy

Grapes: Sangiovese

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming, de-stemmed, 4 day maceration on the skins before pressing and aging in fiberglass.  No sulfur.

Winemaker: Danilo Marcucci

Winemaker Danilo Marcucci brings wine and people together. He travels the length of Italy working as a consultant to several wineries, but instead of trying to leave his own stamp on each project he collaborates with the owners to maximize the expression of their own fruit and terroir (try to explain this one to the French!) Each wine has its own personality but uniquely represents its place and the people behind it. Luckily he married into a family, the Conestabile della Staffas, who happened to own a bit of land. This is a minor understatement as this noble Umbrian family formerly oversaw hundreds of acres of agriculture in the 1700s, producing over 10,000 hectoliters of wine. Production gradually declined and the two World Wars effectively ended it altogether with the last wine produced in 1956. The property and vines were left unattended but no chemicals were ever used. Enter Danilo. After marrying heiress Allessandra he once again is uniting a family with its terroir, although this time it’s kind of like a re-birth. Sensing the history of the place, Danilo easily saw the potential for all the indigenous varieties, including Sangiovese. He’s nailed the cloudy, dusty rose color - classic romance - like an Indian Summer sunset. It tastes like a bushel of plums, oranges, and tomato leaves with a juicy pomegranate and cherry pucker on the finish. light bodied, so you know you can open this bottle before dinner (!) but feels full and satisfying. A perfect fit on one of those lingering warm nights where you might want to dig into something a little more substantial, like and overripe tomato salad, maybe with a sprinkling of pomegranate, and curried chickpeas.