Colle Ciocco Sagrantino Lineup

Wine friends,

W. Blake Gray is one of my favorite wine writers. Here’s what he wrote last summer about Cantina Colle Ciocco’s 2016 Montefalco Sagrantino: “This isn't exported to the US, so only in Europe and Japan can you enjoy the intense, complex character of blackberries, leather, tobacco and floral notes. Nice freshness.”  

That sounds like my kind of Sagrantino. 

Mr. Gray’s description comes from an article about a group of Sagrantino producers who are attempting to make less tannic wines, with more fruit purity, in the face of increasingly warm growing conditions. Colle Ciocco’s Sagrantino was listed as one of the best wines Gray tasted during his trip to the region.

Reading this, it became clear that I needed to taste Colle Ciocco’s wines asap! I’ve wanted to add the right Sagrantino and Trebbiano Spoletino to the Open Tuesday wine lineup since last spring.

My first opportunity to taste the wines came just a few days ago at the Slow Wine fair in Bologna. Cantina Colle Ciocco was my second stop at the event, and it was love at first taste for me.

Co-owner Silvia Spacchetti was welcoming, insightful, and excited to collaborate with Open Tuesday. And she poured absolutely lovely wines. 

These three are my favorites:

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2020 Trebbiano Spoletino “Tempestivo”

The 2021 Colle Ciocco Trebbiano Spoletino is a delicious fuller-bodied white wine made just outside the ancient town of Montefalco, in Umbria. The wine’s flinty minerality blends easily with spiced peach fruit and hints of hazelnut and mediterranean herbs. All the parts fit together in vinous harmony.

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2017 Montefalco Sagrantino

Colle Ciocco’s 2017 Sagrantino di Montefalco is a structured, full-bodied red that’s far fresher and more elegant than other Sagrantino examples on the market, especially at this price. This wine gives you fruit purity, nice flavor depth, and pleasing firm tannins, with no oak in evidence. Flavor notes include blackberry, black cherry, tobacco, and black pepper. It’s definitely a wine that improves with air and food, especially Umbrian food.

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2019 Montefalco Rosso

Colle Ciocco’s 2019 Montefalco Rosso is a bright, fruit-forward red wine made with 70 percent Sangiovese, 15 percent Sagrantino, and 15 percent Merlot. This is the kind of red Umbrians drink midweek, preserving their vintage Sagrantino bottles for weekends and special occasions. At this price, it’s perfect for your Tuesday night.

To order, just click the one of the links above and follow the prompts.

Why, you might wonder, isn’t Cantina Colle Ciocco exported to the U.S.? 

U.S. importers look for big numbers, and Colle Ciocco produces a relatively small number of bottles – roughly 35 thousand per year. Most of their production is already spoken for when it hits the market. 

Colle Ciocco produces about seven thousand bottles of Sagrantino a year, about ten thousand bottles of Montefalco Rosso, and about six thousand bottles of Trebbiano Spoletino.

Here’s Cantina Colle Ciocco on the map of central Italy. 

Check out the spectacular scenery in this video taken on the property.

My first visit in the Umbria section at Slow Wine was fantastic as well – stay tuned for more from Umbria in the fall.

Many thanks, by the way, to one of our founding members, Eli Barton, aka the Umbrian Owl, for helping with the advance research on this one.

Our social media posts for this offer: Instagram | Facebook

Food pairing: This Trebbiano Spoletino would be ideal with fine cuisine dishes based on fish. It’s also a terrific match for soups with legumes, and risotto agli asparagi (Italian rice with asparagus.) With the Montefalco Rosso, Colle Ciocco recommends strangozzi al tartufo (strangozzi pasta with truffles) or tagliatelle con sugo d’oca (tagliatelle with goose gravy.) The Sagrantino is probably the least versatile of the three, but it’s fantastic with red meat or game. Aged cheeses work too, but nothing spicy or herbal. 

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2021 Trebbiano Spoletino “Tempestivo”

13% ABV

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2017 Montefalco Sagrantino

15% ABV

Cantina Colle Ciocco - 2019 Montefalco Rosso

14% ABV

Happy Tuesday,

Chris

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].  

How it works: 

After clicking one of the links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!

About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.

We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. But when there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.

This is the twelfth offer of our spring 2023 season. 

Through February and March, we are sending offers on Thursday and Sunday, with a recap of the past week’s offers on Tuesday.

We ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers this season, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of the fall season offers, we can hold your wines until the next offer season – fall 2023.

Wines offered in the spring will ship in April for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. – but our wines come directly from Italy.

Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.

Chris MacLean

Rob Genova

Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.

Via Augusto Anfossi 19, 20135 Milano - Italy