Paolo Bea, “Rosso de Véo” Online

Paolo Bea, “Rosso de Véo”

The wines of Paolo Bea, Umbria’s most celebrated vignaiolo, have evolved from cult classics to wine collector must-haves over the last few decades—but they’re still about as far from mainstream as so-called “collectibles” get. To have a few bottles of Bea Sagrantino resting in one’s cellar alongside the likes of Classified Growth Bordeaux, Premier/Grand Cru Burgundy, Barolo, or Brunello di Montalcino is to signal a more advanced—and adventurous—brand of connoisseurship.

Today, we’ve got two different Bea Sagrantino bottlings to share, and if supercharged reds of seemingly limitless aging potential are your cup of tea, I strongly suggest you drop what you’re doing and get some “Rosso de Véo” in your cart before our minuscule allocation disappears. Crafted from younger Sagrantino vines on the legendary Bea family farm, Rosso de Véo carries a “table wine” classification, which is woefully inadequate for such a multi-faceted tour de force. The Sagrantino variety, native to Bea’s little corner of Central Umbria, produces wines of outsized proportions, but Bea’s wines have something extra: a spring-loaded tension that lifts them above the general population of thick, blocky, overripe monstrosities that so often capture the big critical scores. Rosso de Véo, along with the flagship “Pagliaro” (coming later today), is Italian royalty. Grab some before it’s gone!

Starting with their detailed, Dr. Bronner’s-style labels and moving on to everything else about them, Paolo Bea wines are wine-geek touchstones. And, as is the case with so many native Italian grapes, the thick-skinned, deeply hued Sagrantino variety is only grown in and around the town of Montefalco, almost smack in the middle of Umbria. Before Sagrantino’s revival in the 1990s, Umbrian reds were mostly shaped by Sangiovese; in the Montefalco DOC, wines labeled “Montefalco Rosso” are mostly Sangiovese (60%-80%) with a small percentage of Sagrantino blended in, while “Montefalco Sagrantino,” or “Sagrantino di Montefalco,” is 100% Sagrantino—a variety which boasts some of the highest levels of polyphenols (tannins/color pigments) of any wine grape in the world. Traditionally, Sagrantino was only used for passito (dried-grape) sweet wines—only in the early 1980s were dry versions readily available.

Paolo Bea was the established Sagrantino master long before the variety’s modern-day renaissance. Between 2001 and 2009, plantings of the variety grew so quickly that the local producers’ association declared a moratorium for a time. Many Californian winemakers (among others) grabbed some “suitcase cuttings” for planting at home, with some impressive results. But still, this variety belongs to a small patch of Central Umbria, growing on low, rolling hills of clay, gravel, and sand over limestone bedrock. Umbria has quite a few rivers snaking through its territory (including the Tevere, or Tiber, which flows down through Rome), so much of the soil is of “alluvial” origin.

“Rosso de Véo” (first released in 2005) is most easily described as the “young-vine cuvée” in the Bea lineup, although it is vinified in much the same way as the estate’s pricier single-vineyard wines: 100% Sagrantino is subjected to an extra-long maceration during fermentation (40-50 days), after which the finished wine is aged for a year in steel tanks, two years in large oak barrels, and a year in bottle before release. Young vines these may be, but you’d never know it from the profound wine in the bottle.

In the glass, the 2017 is an inky ruby-black moving to a magenta rim, with intense aromas of black currant, plum, mulberry, and cassis are layered with notes of licorice, dark chocolate, baking spices, crushed black rocks, and wild herbs. It is full-bodied and deeply mineral, and while it’s not quite as tannic as some of Bea’s other Sagrantinos, it’s still in need of at least an hour in a decanter if you’re planning on opening a bottle soon. Otherwise, let this one slumber for as long as you like—it should still be singing 20 years down the line (not that I plan on waiting anywhere near that long). Be sure to put something substantial on the table to really bring out the wine’s best. You won’t soon forget this one—I guarantee it!