For decades now, the Bea family has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of Umbrian wine; the Sagrantino grape in particular. Paolo began crafting wonderful, authentic wines of terroir decades ago and his son Giampero has successfully taken over the estate. They continue to be some of Italy's most artful and compelling wines.

The focus is on indigenous grapes, specifically the rugged and distinctive Sagrantino. It's a grape with an extraordinarily high number of phenolic compounds, more than almost any other. It can be wild and untamed, but with long maceration times and long aging—in barrel and in bottle, like Bea does—it melds into something exotic and exciting. The name Sagrantino itself most likely derives from the Latin "sagra", or feast, and it is indeed a feast for the senses.

What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...

“Lapideus” Umbria Bianco: Giampiero acquired a parcel of 80-year-old Trebbiano Spoletino in the town of Pigge di Trevi several years back, and thus with this 2014 we have an exciting new addition to the Bea lineup. Arising from a cooler microclimate than the “Arboreus” above, “Lapideus” spent a lengthy 35 days on it skins after pressing, followed by 210 additional days on the gross lees—a similar vinification to “Arboreus,” yet one that yielded entirely different results. Though no less deeply amber in its appearance, “Lapideus” has a leaner, racier carriage than the broad-shouldered “Arboreus,” with more filigree, a less overwhelmingly intense nose of apricots, cloves, and candied ginger. If “Arboreus” is a sea to swim in, “Lapideus” is a rocket to ride, emphasizing drive and lift over layered density. It is still a wine of impressive power, especially given its modest 12% alcohol, but the fruit is more direct, pure, and foregrounded. So often the so-called “orange wines” seem to stand alone, iconoclastic creations that defy fine-tuned peer-group comparisons and revel in their singular personalities. Even the discourse that surrounds them tends to treat them more as wines of technique than wines of terroir. Thus, it is fascinating to experience the same grape variety given roughly the same treatment by the same grower, whereby the differences in the wines are largely driven by the differences in their underlying places of origin.

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