Paolo Bea Rosso de Veo Umbria Rosso 2019

Paolo Bea Rosso de Veo Umbria Rosso 2019

Rosso de Veo (“Veo” is the way the family’s name is pronounced in the old Umbrian dialect) is pure Sagrantino sourced from younger vines around the property and from parcels that don’t quite make Giampiero’s rigorous cut for Pagliaro, Pipparello, and Cerrete. This sun-marked 2019, clocking in at 14% alcohol and with a formidable 45-day maceration, is a potent and brooding wine that makes no concessions to polite society. Significant in its tannins, it nonetheless presents them in such a multifaceted way as to transcend their viselike grip; it offers classic sandalwood spice, mineral-saturated depth-charge stoniness, and a vivacious mouthfeel like crunching into dripping-ripe berries.

“Rosso de Véo” is a selection of the Bea estate’s younger Sagrantino vines, principally from the Cerrete vineyard which graces the highest point in Montefalco, between 1300 and 1500 feet above sea level. The soil is clay and limestone infused with small pebbles from an ancient riverbed. This wine is vinified in a similar fashion to the single vineyard Sagrantino with a long cuvaison which extends forty to fifty days. The wine is then aged one year in stainless steel tanks, two years in large oak barrels and another year in bottle before release. The wine is not filtered. Production varies depending on vintage … 9000 bottles were produced in 2005, the first year this exclusively Sagrantino-based cuvée was created.