Tasting at Societa Agricola Caprai

We finally found the Caprai winery near Montefalco after coming into town along smaller roads on the advice of our navigation system. We were stoked for the visit since we had had two bottles of the 2005 Caprai Sagrantino Collepiano a couple of days earlier with dinner at the Villa Montali restaurant south of Lake Trasimeno. By the way, this restaurant is highly recommended—in my opinion, the best meal we had in Italy. And very reasonably priced wines.

We tasted through the 2005 Caprai collection on our visit, which included:

2008 Caprai Grecante Grechetto Colli
This is 100% Grechetto juice and shows a surprisingly intense citrus palate, with faint tropical fruit notes on the nose overwhelmed by slightly bitter citrus aromas, almost a quinine character. The wine shows fine balance, with a healthy dose of acidity. I really cannot remember why I didn’t buy any of this, but it must have been my limited luggage space…

2006 Caprai Montefalco Rosso (70% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot, 15% Sagrantino)
The new oak in this wine was pretty prominent on both the nose and the palate, but had a enough tannic structure that the effect was not overwhelming. Still this showed more Merlot character than I care for, giving it a slightly “international” or amorphous style that leaves me cold, or at least unimpressed.

2005 Caprai Rosso Outsider
According to the lady serving us, this wine spends 18 months in barrique. This 50% Merlot, 50% Cabrnet Sauvignon wine shows a healthy dose of new oak on the palate as you might expect, but the delineation and structure is much more evident here, especially as compared to the Rosso. On the nose, dusty aromas with a touch of toast probably reflect the time in barrique. I can certainly see somebody like Robert Parker or Jeff Leve liking this wine with its excellent depth and length,--this would give many a Bordeaux a run for the money.

2005 Caprai Sagrantino de Montefalco Collepiano
As good as the 2005 Rosso Outsider was, this wine trumped that wine ultimately through sheer force of character and originality. The wine shows a distinct floral character on the nose, with aromas of lavender and violet emerging as if from some great depth. The bottles we had at dinner a couple of nights earlier were even showier, perhaps because of the pairing with the truffle ravioli in a Sagrantino reduction. A beautifully balanced wine that, while still primary, is quite drinkable now if one can handle firm and authoritatively structured wines.

2005 Caprai Sangrantino de Montefalco 25 Anni
Another step up, similar in overall character to the Collepiano, but with another level of structure, nuance, and detail on both the nose and palate. The deeply pitched, fragrant nose has one thinking that they have stumbled into a violet patch. Slightly sweeter, deeper, and rounder in the mouth than the Collepiano, the long finish is positively palate staining, with newly found nuances emerging even on the diminuendo.