Pottarello Magnum

Pottarello comes from Agri Segretum, the organic estate that Lorenzo De Monaco and Eileen Holland built in Collazzone, in Umbria's Tiber River Valley. The name is Umbrian dialect for little kid, a cheeky title for what is actually one of the estate's most serious and structured wines, awarded the Veronelli Vino d'Oro distinction for its 2021 vintage.

The blend leans heavily on Sangiovese, rounded out with Malvasia Nera and Colorino, sourced from a particular section of the estate's vineyard where the Sangiovese biotype grows in especially thin, small-berried clusters. Smaller berries mean proportionally more skin, translating into deeper colour and greater extraction of polyphenols. The grapes ferment in stainless steel with about three weeks of skin contact, during which the team performs traditional manual punch-downs by hand. After pressing, the wine ages around twelve months in French oak tonneaux, followed by another nine months resting in bottle before release. Classified under the Todi DOC Rosso, Pottarello is considered the estate's clearest expression of Umbria in a glass.

The result is full-bodied and deeply structured, with Sangiovese providing the tannic backbone, Malvasia Nera contributing wild berry lift and Colorino adding a thread of spice. At 14% alcohol, this is a wine built for the table rather than the aperitif hour, best decanted and paired with grilled meats, mushrooms or rich, slow-cooked pasta. Minimal intervention, considerable soul.