Uncorked Umbrian Secrets
If you haven’t heard of Sagrantino di Montefalco, you’re in excellent company. “I’ve had sommeliers from Italy come in who don’t know these wines,” says Roberto Paris, the urbane, soft-spoken manager and wine director of il Buco...”The very first bottled wine I ever drank was a Sagrantino,” he says, wincing at the memory. “It was terrible.” A few years ago, when Paris poured me my first Sagrantino, a 1995 Paolo Bea, I had a different reaction. I felt like…I did when I first encountered the work of Umbrian painter Piero della Francesca – so singular and weird - this was a wine with soul.