This excellent Umbrian red from Gambero Rosso's 2006 Winery of the Year blends exotic sagrantino with merlot and sangiovese.

Umbria - "The Green Heart Of Italy" - has always lived in the shadow of neighboring Tuscany. Bisected by the Appenine mountain chain, its hilltowns - Perugia, Assisi, Spello, Spoleto, Todi, Orvieto, Montefalco - were always more difficult of access. In wine terms, Umbria was always Nowheresville, until the advent of the winery of Arnaldo Caprai, and the vision of his son Marco.

Marco and his renowned winemaker Attilio Pagli have, through diligent research and persistent experimentation, revived indiginous grapes of Umbria to produce wines which now rank with the greatest Barolos, Barbarescos, Brunellos and Super-Tuscans. Italy's foremost wine journal, Gambero Rosso/Slow Food's "Vini d'Italia", has bestowed its highest ranking of "Tre Bicchiere" (Three Glasses) on the Caprai's Sagrantino di Montefalco for eight years in a row. For 2006, they have named Arnaldo Caprai "Winery Of The Year". A.G. Ferrari is proud to feature these superb expressions of one of Italy's greatest cultural treasures.

Rescued and perfected by Caprai, sagrantino has moved to the forefront of great indigenous Italian grape varietals, along with nebbiolo, sangiovese, and aglianico. And it rivals cabernet, merlot, pinot noir and syrah for worldwide preeminence. Its intensity and concentration are undisputed. Its complexity and ability to age are just being discovered. "Gambero Rosso" described this wines as having "fruit notes of blackberry and blueberry enriched with hints of balsamico, bay leaves and black pepper." Robert Parker Jr.'s "Wine Advocate" gave the wine 91 points, calling the wine "fragrant, expansive and long...already supple and round...will easily last another decade." This wine deserves a haunch of wild boar, or any other fine cut of meat.

Visit Arnaldo Caprai's website to learn more about Gambero Rosso's 2006 Italian Winery of the Year.