3240 Visiting wineries near Montefalco

In response to a question on another thread, it is possible to visit wineries in Umbria, but they are not usually as commercially geared-up to receiving visitors as California wineries.

In the Montefalco area, famous for its ever-more-expensive Sagrantino, [url=http://english.arnaldocaprai.it]Arnaldo Caprai[/url] ( on the road towards Foligno) is in a lovely setting and has a posh Cantina and Enotoca alla Sonoma valley etc.

At the other extreme, the Adanti vineyard, at an imposing country house just off the road to Bevagna has a rustic cantina. On one visit, a few years ago, the oenologist just opened three bottles of wine and left them on the table for us for us to drink at leisure while he he went off to work! (A sharp contrast to our experience at a California winery, when we were mortified to find that the winery was flogging it's own wine to visitors for more than it cost in the local supermarket)

There's also the Scacciadiavoli winery, on the road to Bastardo, which seems to have been buffing-up its reception areas up recently.

If you can schedule a visit to the Montefalco area the last Sunday in May for Cantine Aperti, the wineries all throw open their doors for a hedonistic day of free wine, food and often music. By the way, if you can't afford the Sagrantino, the Montefalco Rosso (particularly that of Scacciadiavoli) is almost as good and better value at about €8 bottle instead of €25.

Category
Eat & Drink

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/21/2006 - 17:34

i've been to Adanti - the wine is fantastic. we always take a trip there when we visit our house. The French fella who answers the door is very entertaining. He makes the experience very worthwhile when we visit. we usually go on a saturday but its only open until 12.30 so you need to make sure you get there on time. :o

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/03/2007 - 05:38

Try Napolini just outside Montefalco. Mario Napolini speaks excellent English and this family run estate make fantastic Sagrantino and a Rosso di Montefalco which is about £4 a bottle. It's even better if you can bear to keep it a year.

Near Spello is the Sportoletti estate who are very well geared up for visitors and make fantastic wines. Their Villa Fidelia Rosso scored 96 out of 100 on the 1999 vintage. They also have a cheap quaffer called Rosso d'Assisi which is lovely (again maybe needs an extra year after the Italians start drinking it to be at its best)

Happy glugging!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/05/2007 - 15:50

Our favorite in Montefalco is Antonelli. Their Sagrantino has an excellent quality price ratio. We always have a bottle of their Grechetto in the fridge during summer as it is light aromatic and refreshing.

They make a good grappa, a mild blond grappa riserva and an adorable Sagrantino passito. They have a big party during Cantine Aperte, do go if you are in the area and do not mind the crowds. For the rest of the year it is always possible to go for a free tasting (office hours Mon. to Sat.).

The Sportoletti brothers have a free tasting for individual visitors but also do groups for a small fee in which case they show the winery and offer some home cooked food with the wine.

Some of my guests have been very happy with Paolo Bea's tasting but I haven't been there myself [URL="http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/umbria/ck_wine_food.htm"] See here [/URL]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/07/2007 - 07:00

[QUOTE=Marc;27360]There's also the Scacciadiavoli winery, on the road to Bastardo, which seems to have been buffing-up its reception areas up recently.[/QUOTE]

This is one of our favorites too, and we try to take our guests there. Another nice winery, practically across the street from Scacciadiavoli, is Terre de la Custodia.

We've been put off by Antonelli when we discovered that it cost more to buy their wine directly than from the IperCoop!