Vinalia x Adanti, Montefalco Rosso

Adanti counts among the small handful of artisan wineries that resuscitated the Sagrantino grape and the Montefalco region in the mid-20th century. Founded in 1972, Domenico Adanti purchased and renovated an old Celestine Monastery in Arquata and quickly got to work revitalizing the abandoned vineyards that surrounded the property. Today, Adanti is helmed by second and third generation, led by Domenico’s daughter and granddaughter Daniela and Stella. They operate 30 hectares of vineyard, which they farm organically.

Montefalco sits near the middle of Umbria on the spine of the Apennine range and is the region’s most famous red wine territory. The earliest evidence of winegrowing in Montefalco traces to 1088, and documents scattered across the next few centuries detail various legal protections afforded to viticulture. Nearly synonymous with the fascinatingly tannic Sagrantino, Montefalco yields both sweet and dry red wines, as well as a small assortment of whites from Trebbiano Spoletino and Grechetto.

Italy’s most planted grape, Sangiovese forms the foundation of some of the world’s most cherished red wines. While Sangiovese is cultivated across the Italian Peninsula—especially in Umbria, Lazio, and Emilia-Romagna—its most famous wines are, indeed, such Tuscan treasures as Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino. Sagrantino is most likely native to Umbria, where almost all plantings are concentrated today. It is among the most phenolically rich grapes in the world—with astoundingly high concentrations of pigment and tannin.