Italian wine and grape guide : Sagrantino

Sagrantino is a red grape variety native of Umbria, central Italy, and it is mainly grown in the Montefalco area with its cultivated area slowly increasing. The name Sagrantino has uncertain origin, it is thought it comes from either sagra (town's food celebration) or sacrestia (vestry), wine used during the mass celebration.

Initially used for making passito style wines, from the 1970s winemakers have started to abandon the passito for the secco, dry style.

The Sagrantino grape has one of the highest tannin level in the world amongst all grapes, and these tannins gives the wine longevity, Sagrantino made wines tend to be dark, with black fruit notes and spicy in the nose and full on the palate, its most famous wine is the Sagrantino di Montefalco.