From our importer, Lyle Railsback: After leaving the Northern Rhône last April I flew from Lyon to Rome to track down a lead on some delicious Sangiovese I had tasted earlier last January in Collioure (of all places). From Fiumicino, I drove two hours North to Collazzone, a Medieval hilltop town in the heart of Umbria, and in the DOC of “Rosso di Todi”, on the Southern border of the DOCG of Montefalco Sagrantino.

The Umbrians are said to be the most ancient people of Italy (gens antiquissima Italiae) and are thought to be named “Ombrii” by the Greeks, on account of their having survived the rains after the flood. As Rome became a global power and put an end to this Umbrian culture, first expanding across the Tiber in 396 BC, and the hillside towns that flank the ancient river bed are still planted to a mix of ancient biotypes of red and white grapes.

Sangiovese here is King, and Lorenzo De Monaco has four different biotypes planted in his SW-exposed “La Segreta,” along with smaller amounts of Colorino, Malvasia Nera, and some newly-planted “Grero,” or “Greco Nero,” the dark-skinned cousin of Greco di Tufo.

With just six hectares in production, Lorenzo’s magic is his attention to detail, both in the vineyards (with algae and orange extract treatments as one example of his devotion to homeopathic farming) and in his tiny (but immaculate) cellar, where he experiments with a mix of clay amphorae, and Demi-muids from Taransaud, and larger oval botti from Mittelberger and Rousseau. He also enjoys the benefit of consulting with Ruggero Mazzilli, whose “Viticoltura Biologica” is one of the reference standard texts on biodynamic farming in Italy.

Lorenzo bottles of his wines under the label “Agri Segretum,” selling through a few smaller importers in the US, but he agreed to let me work with just one Rosso di Todi bottling that I liked the most, which he bottled with wax and labelled as “De Monaco & Holland.”

With so much of what I’ve tasted in Umbria you have either super rustic and “natural” (like Paolo Bea or Antona Milziade) or overly polished and market-driven (like Arnaldo Caprai or Antonelli), and what I love most about Lorenzo’s wines is that it is neither of these. Rather, his Rosso di Todi is a perfect expression of a great old-world terroir of alluvial sediments with sand, gravel, and clay, and with a light touch that showcases the purity of Sangiovese at its best.

DRINK UP.

Four biotypes of Sangiovese 80%, Malvasia Nera 10%, and Colorino 10%, picked beginning October 5th. Native yeast fermentation and maceration for 20 days, then aging in 500L botti, and bottled after 24 months. 250 cases imported.

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