Each month, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious Special Italian Wine for you to drink and enjoy at home  – or in your Abruzzo holiday villa !

Sagrantino di Montefalco 'Duca Odoardo'. DOCG. 2005. Terre de la Custodia

How do you pour a bottle of wine ? Grab it by the neck and slosh it into the glass, onto the table, and over anyone who happens to be sitting nearby ?

Seize it firmly around the middle; tilt your glass and gently trickle in a thimbleful ?

I ask because this bottle of Sagrantino di Montefalco has got a generous thumb-shaped indention low down underneath the label and a similar, finger-size groove on its reverse, which makes the insouciant palm-underneath-the-bottle transfer of wine to glass perfected by sommeliers worldwide an absolute doddle.

You can decide for yourself whether this is all irredeemably precious, or an actually quite clever piece of wine bottle design.

A talking point then before we've even pulled the cork !

This Sagrantino di Montefalco is a dry, red DOCG wine from Umbria made from the Sagrantino grape.

Oddly, there's no necessity for the wine to be produced in – or even near – the original production area in the comune of Montefalco. As long as it comes from Umbria and is made of 100% Sagrantino grapes – that's good enough.

It's very tannic; very long-lived and actually rather good.

Don't confuse it with a sweet passito wine of exactly the same name (and also with DOCG status) also made in Umbria from semi-dried Sagrantino grapes

This particular bottle comes from the well-regarded Terre de la Custodia winery near Perugia under the Duca Odoardo brand-name.

It gets between a year and 15 months in wood and then sits waiting patiently before it's released 30 months after the vintage.

The makers confidently assert it'll last well in bottle for 15 years and more and with the tannins in evidence here, you wouldn't disagree.

A word of reassurance in case all this talk of tannins makes you nervous. There are tannins that make your mouth feel as though it's been coated in finely-powdered sawdust; then there are tannins that just dry and concentrate the fruit flavours into a delicious long finish.

Luckily, we're dealing with the latter here.

The colour is a deep garnet. In the glass you get wafts of violets and bramble fruit. Very classy. A sip reveals black cherries and mulberries which then linger a long, long time.

This 2005 vintage is hardly yet hitting its stride and as it will just go on improving. By the time it's run the course recommended by its makers – and provided you haven't succumbed to temptation and opened it – it will be a very special bottle indeed.

Not for drinking on its own. Roast red meats, game and strong cheeses are suggested. Or you could make a proper Welsh Rarebit – and I mean a proper Welsh Rarebit, not just slapping a slice of processed cheddar onto a piece of pre-sliced bread and sticking it under the grill – which would accompany a glass or two of this excellent wine to perfection.

At A Glance…

• This month's "Special Italian Wine": Sagrantino di Montefalco 'Duca Odoardo'
• Vintage: 2005
• Designation: DOCG
• Grape: 100% Sagrantino
• Strength: 13.5%
• Closure: Cork
• Producer: Terre de la Custodia
• Website: www.terredelacustodia.it
• This bottle cost: €16.29

Next Month…
The region of Alto Adige in north-east Italy is producing an increasingly interesting and impressive range of white varietals. We sample a Riesling from one of the area's best producers. It's a wine you're going to enjoy trying at home – and in your Abruzzo holiday villa !

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Eating and Drinking, Special Italian Wine, Vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.