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The Wines of Umbria

Wines of UmbriaThough their contiguous positioning renders it difficult to discriminate between Umbria and Toscana, a condition that the latter’s fame exacerbates, Umbria is very much its own region—one that has been coming into its own zone and attracting the notice of both critic and consumer. Umbria traditionally privileged other product categories, though it has struggled to realize prime positioning in its favored specializations—truffles and olive oil. Its terroir, however, has always served it well: the collaboration between sea and mountain breezes realizes a classic context for ripening, while the volcanic soils put the vines under “motivational” stress. These conditions have been behind some of the zone’s most successful wines.
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Castello della Sala Muffato Della Sala 2011 500ml
Castello della Sala Muffato Della Sala 2011 500ml
Price: $44.99
Currently Unavailable.

The 2011 growing year started cool and sunny but ended hot and dry, which led to a limited yield of healthy, concentrated grapes; the ’11 Muffato della Sala reflects its vintage in its lush aromatics, honeyed texture, and terrific balance. Juicy stone, succulent tropical, and zesty citrus fruits cavort with buttery toffee, saline minerals, pressed flower petals, and kisses of spice in this vibrant yet unctuous wine. Derived primarily from grapes that have realized a considerable degree of concentration and been affected by noble rot, this sweet wine is intense and decadent. Regarded as the most accomplished in its class, in 2011, Muffato della Sala is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Grechetto, Sèmillon, Gewürzraminer, and Riesling, fermented separately before blending and aging for ten months.
Paolo Bea Bianco Santa Chiara 2015 750ml
Paolo Bea Bianco Santa Chiara 2015 750ml
Price: $47.99
Currently Unavailable.

Rainier cherries, white stone fruits, and melon waft with savory minerals, toffee, licorice and white flower petals in this indescribable, opulent and spicy orange wine from Paolo Bea. 2015 saw a hot vintage in Umbria, and this wine reflects that heat with its generous, open-knit profile, but a sturdy mineral core and vibrant acidity keep it nimble and lively. Bea grows its grapes organically and makes its wines without additives or intervention; quite simply, they are magical. A blend of Grechetto, Malvasia, Chardonnay, Sauvignon, and Garganega, this wine macerates on its skins for about two weeks, and it ages extensively on its lees in stainless steel, resulting in a voluptuous, complex orange wine.
Castello della Sala Muffato Della Sala 2014 500ml
Castello della Sala Muffato Della Sala 2014 500ml
Price: $49.99
Currently Unavailable.

2014 gifted Castello della Sala with the perfect climatic conditions for botrytis, or “noble rot,” which the estate turned into a nearly flawless bottle of its low-production Muffato della Sala. Crushed white flowers, saline minerals, warm spices, candied citrus and saffron frame the juicy, fleshy stone fruits in this elegant, tantalizing wine. While sweet, the ’14 Muffato della Sala is nonetheless vibrant and bright, uncoiling with silky grace to reveal endless notes and shifting textures. This persistent, structured wine will drink for decades. Derived primarily from grapes that have realized a considerable degree of concentration and been affected by noble rot, the sweet wines of Orvieto are intense and decadent. Regarded as the most accomplished in its class, Muffato della Sala is 60% Sauvignon Blanc blended with Grechetto, Gewurztraminer, and Riesling.
Paolo Bea Umbria Rosso Vigna San Valentino 2012 750ml
Paolo Bea Umbria Rosso Vigna San Valentino 2012 750ml
Price: $49.99

Smoky, dense, and explosive, Bea’s ’12 Umbria Rosso Vigna San Valentino is simply glorious. Luscious blue and black fruits dance with crisp cassis, smoky minerals, exotic spices, pressed herbs, potpourri and cigar wrapper in this unabashedly seductive big red. Tannins are burly but silky, complemented by surprisingly vibrant acidity, a sweet inner perfume and a sturdy core of smoky, savory minerals. You can drink this wine upon release, but it has the stuffing to age beautifully over the next decade. As with all of Paolo Bea's wines, the estate uses non-interventionist techniques to grow the old-vine grapes for its cru San Valentino, a clay-rich vineyard of 50-year-old vines that sits at 1,300 feet above sea level. A blend of 70 % Sangiovese with the rest split evenly between indigenous Umbrian grapes Sagrantino and Montepulciano, grapes ferment on the skins for 38 days, and the wine ages for about three years in stainless steel, followed by four months to a year in bottle prior to release. Paolo Bea San Valentino is Bea’s most newbie-friendly wine, and the 2012 bottling is certain to make many new fans of this singular estate.
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2014 750ml
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2014 750ml
Price: $54.99
Currently Unavailable.

2014 was a challenging vintage in Italy that separated good winemakers from great ones. The Antinori team shows its prowess in this rich, creamy and zesty ’14 Cervaro bottling. Sappy yet fresh, this wine bursts with orchard and stone fruits, crushed hazelnuts, white flower petals, and a kiss of toasty, spicy wood. Whooshing across the palate with vibrant acidity, this mid to full-bodied white has plenty of verve to match its opulent mouth-feel, and savory minerality complicates its sweet inner perfume. Beautifully structured and textured, the ’14 Cervaro is a triumph in a difficult vintage. A blend of 90% Chardonnay with 10% Grechetto, the grapes for this wine macerate separately in tanks, and the wines undergo malolactic fermentation in oak barrels; after five months, the blend is assembled and the wine ages for a year in bottle before release.
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2015 750ml
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2015 750ml
Price: $54.99
Currently Unavailable.

Crisp apples, plump pears, and succulent citrus mingle with a mélange of baking spices, pressed white flowers, crushed stones, and a kiss of vanilla in this beautifully balanced, nimble ’15 Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay. This wine snuggles your palate with dry extract, but its vibrant core of minerality keeps it light on its feet. Savory minerals, sweet fruit and lemony acidity complement one another in the wine’s resonant, classy finish. A blend of 90% Chardonnay with 10% Grechetto, the grapes for this wine macerate separately in tanks, and the wines undergo malolactic fermentation in oak barrels; after five months, the blend is assembled and the wine ages for a year in bottle before release.
Paolo Bea Rosso de Veo Umbria IGT 2009 750ml
Paolo Bea Rosso de Veo Umbria IGT 2009 750ml
Price: $59.99
Currently Unavailable.

Succulent red and black fruits dance with lilac petals, pencil lead, warm baking spices, saddle leather, forest floor, crushed herbs and a touch of sauvage in the wonderfully complex and intriguing ’09 Rosso de Véo. This wine exults in its tension between its sweet and savory elements, between its silky texture and chewy tannins, and between its earthiness and ethereal feel. Enjoyable now, this wine will cellar for another decade or longer. Made from the estate’s youngest Sagrantino vines, Rosso de Véo derives mostly from the Cerrete vineyard, the highest point of Bea’s estate at about 1,300-1,500 feet above sea level. Bea vinifies the de Véo in the same fashion as its Montefalco Sagrantino--a painstaking multi-step process that includes a 40-50 day cuvaison, a year of aging in stainless steel, two years in oak barrels, and another year in bottle before release.
Paolo Bea Arboreus Umbria Bianco 2011 750ml
Paolo Bea Arboreus Umbria Bianco 2011 750ml
Price: $59.99

Weighty, lush, and utterly delicious, the ’11 Arboreus Umbria Bianco bursts from the glass with a shower of ripe figs, juicy stone fruits, and crisp orchard fruits, all framed by dried flower petals, licorice, crushed river rocks, underbrush, and a touch of warm earth. A white that drinks like a red, Arboreus Bianco is silky yet ethereal, energized by its lively acidity and its volcanic mineral core. A fantastic complement to a wide range of foods from white meats to hearty seafood to pungent cheeses, Bea’s Arboreus Bianco gets its name from old pre-phylloxera vine Trebbiano Spoletino rootstock whose vines are trained into tree-like shapes. The wine’s intense flavor comes from its grapes’ fermenting on the skins for about four weeks and the wine aging in stainless steel, sitting on its lees, for more than two years before bottling.
(Antinori) Castello della Sala Pinot Nero 2015 750ml
(Antinori) Castello della Sala Pinot Nero 2015 750ml
Price: $59.99

2015 saw a temperate, sunny vintage at Castello della Sala, Antinori’s Umbrian estate, and this Pinot Nero reflects its year in its balanced, vibrant, and finessed profile. Red and blue fruits are framed by crushed river rocks, wildflower petals, baking spices, and a touch of earth in this elegant, full-bodied wine. This ’15 Pinot Nero finds admirable balance among its elements, and it reveals surprising complexity as it builds to a mineral-laden crescendo. The grapes for this wine spend ten days macerating on the skins in stainless steel; then, they're fermented in temperature-controlled barrels, followed by malolactic fermentation and aging for around eight months in barrique and another fifteen in bottle before release.
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2016 750ml
Antinori Cervaro della Sala Chardonnay 2016 750ml
Price: $59.99

Made in a Burgundian style that is reminiscent of a traditional Meursault, the '16 Cervaro marries intense aromatics with a nicely full-bodied palate that’s studded with salty minerals. 2016 saw a cool growing year marked by a warm summer, and this wine reflects its vintage in its classic, elegant lines and its oscillation between sweet, ripe fruits and spicy, savory notes. White wildflowers, warm baking spices, orange zest and caramel frame the wine’s juicy orchard and succulent stone fruits; these flavors echo on the palate whose vibrant acidity propels a lingering, mineral-inflected finish. A blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Grechetto, grapes vinify separately; wine remains on the less for five months in oak barrels, after which it is racked, blended and bottled, resting for ten months in the cellar before release. Sporting soils of clay, volcanic sediment and Pliocene fossils, the rolling land at Castello della Sala imparts a mineral inflection to its long-aging, world-class white.