2016 Moretti Omero Sagrantino di Montefalco Umbria 750 ml

No Italian wine collection is complete without a Montefalco Sagrantino like Moretti Omero’s 2016, which Decanter called “a complete original.” Sagrantinos are rare to begin with, but this 97-pointer and Best in Show Italy 2020 winner is incredibly scarce. This is an essential for a true Italian-wine lover’s cellar—and Napa Cab fans will adore it too.

Montefalco Sagrantino is a DOCG in Umbria, a landlocked region in central Italy that’s defined by rolling green hills, medieval hamlets, and full-tilt red wines that are some of the most underappreciated in all of Italy. 

Sagrantino is one of Italy’s most ancient varieties, known for its intensely powerful tannins and significant ageability. In Montefalco—called the “balcony of Umbria” for its hilltop roost in the heart of the region—hot, arid growing seasons awaken those tannins as the Sagrantino ripens. The resulting wine is dark as night, concentrated and rich with black cherry fruit and built with the structure to age decades. 

Moretti Omero is a certified organic estate founded in 1992 by Omero Moretti, run in tandem today with his daughter Giusy. Their wines boast brisk acidity, thanks to vineyards that sit at some of the highest elevations in the DOCG, polished nicely by a year of aging in French oak tonneaux. 

After five more years in bottle, this Sagrantino is as complex as it is indulgent, exactly the kind of wine that will appeal to Cabernet Sauvignon lovers and serious Italian connoisseurs. We can’t think of a better way to spend an evening than to buy a bottle of this noble, intense red and pair it with a leg of lamb, plugged with lardo, garlic, and fresh herbs, roasted over an oak fire.