scottreiner
scott reiner
anyone have any experience with these wines?
arnaldo caprai
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Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
In September I tried four and was not too impressed. Seemed competent but industrial, sort of without soul. The kind of wine you find at duty free shops, where in fact I bought mine.
2008 Arnaldo Caprai Grecante Grechetto dei Colli Martani DOC 13.5%
100% Grechetto, fermented and aged 3 months in stainless steel. Aroma is unexpectedly tropical, mainly passion fruit, with slate/mineral notes. Fruity and sweet, with a nicely bitter mid palate. Could use a little more acidity, but otherwise quite attractive.
2006 Arnaldo Caprai Montefalco Rosso DOC 14.0%
Sangiovese 70%, Sagrantino 15%, Merlot 15%, aged 12 months in large oak barrels. Aromas of cherry and vanilla, the latter tending towards malted milk. Good acidity, raspy tannins, curiously granular. Peppery, with good mouth weight.
2005 Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco Collepiano DOCG 14.5%
100% Sagrantino, aged 22 months in French oak barriques. Attractive cherry and leather aromas, with a new note (for me): eggnog. Dense mouth feel. Aggressive tannins, intensely mouth-puckering; this sandpaper needs time to polymerize. Well made, but didnt give me pleasure (just not into tough love).
2004 Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco 25 Anni DOCG 14.5%
100% Sagrantino, aged 24 months in French oak barriques. Expensive. Attractive cherry and funk. Excellent mouth feel, judicious oak, decent acidity, but those raspy tannins seem intent on burning a hole through your tongue. Best of the three reds, but needs therapy. Down, boy, down!
2008 Arnaldo Caprai Grecante Grechetto dei Colli Martani DOC 13.5%
100% Grechetto, fermented and aged 3 months in stainless steel. Aroma is unexpectedly tropical, mainly passion fruit, with slate/mineral notes. Fruity and sweet, with a nicely bitter mid palate. Could use a little more acidity, but otherwise quite attractive.
2006 Arnaldo Caprai Montefalco Rosso DOC 14.0%
Sangiovese 70%, Sagrantino 15%, Merlot 15%, aged 12 months in large oak barrels. Aromas of cherry and vanilla, the latter tending towards malted milk. Good acidity, raspy tannins, curiously granular. Peppery, with good mouth weight.
2005 Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco Collepiano DOCG 14.5%
100% Sagrantino, aged 22 months in French oak barriques. Attractive cherry and leather aromas, with a new note (for me): eggnog. Dense mouth feel. Aggressive tannins, intensely mouth-puckering; this sandpaper needs time to polymerize. Well made, but didnt give me pleasure (just not into tough love).
2004 Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco 25 Anni DOCG 14.5%
100% Sagrantino, aged 24 months in French oak barriques. Expensive. Attractive cherry and funk. Excellent mouth feel, judicious oak, decent acidity, but those raspy tannins seem intent on burning a hole through your tongue. Best of the three reds, but needs therapy. Down, boy, down!
scottreiner
scott reiner
great. i'm meeting with the wine maker on monday...
thanks.
thanks.
Stephn Fahy
Stephen C. Fahy
I've been a huge supporter and fan of Caprai's wines for as many years as I've ben married. My wife's cousin clued me in (on my honeymoon and first trip to Italy) to the magic of Caprai long before it became available in the states. He hooked me up with a Montefalco from the late 80's, I think, and it left me stunned.
True enough, Caprai's wine has more tannin, in its youth, than most wines. The solution-they need minimum 10 yrs to integrate and perhaps, in stronger vintages, more like 15 to really bloom. An unfortunate example: I made the mistake of opening the 2004 Collepiano at an in-store tasting this past Christmas, as sort of a treat for our customers and BLAMMO-it drank like coarse sandpaper-still a steel trap, but you could taste the unbelievably wild, raspy, bestly fruit that beckoned to be let out of its cage under the thick, pronounced tannic armor. Last year, I had a 97 Caprai-absolutely beautiful, bodacious and singing, albeit as a well-endowed operetta, but still gorgeous, all in all.
True enough, Caprai's wine has more tannin, in its youth, than most wines. The solution-they need minimum 10 yrs to integrate and perhaps, in stronger vintages, more like 15 to really bloom. An unfortunate example: I made the mistake of opening the 2004 Collepiano at an in-store tasting this past Christmas, as sort of a treat for our customers and BLAMMO-it drank like coarse sandpaper-still a steel trap, but you could taste the unbelievably wild, raspy, bestly fruit that beckoned to be let out of its cage under the thick, pronounced tannic armor. Last year, I had a 97 Caprai-absolutely beautiful, bodacious and singing, albeit as a well-endowed operetta, but still gorgeous, all in all.
Matteo Mollo
Matteo Mollo
Bea.
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
My thoughts, exactly.
As I've said here before, Bea makes some of the most soulful wines around, to my tastes. The few times I've had Caprai wines, they could have been made by CA Cabernet producers who get humongous scores in certain publications that we can all name.
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Reminds me of the time 20 years or so ago when I had dinner with Angelo Gaja. I started off by telling him how much I liked wines of the Langhe with their wines that were so particular to that region, and not international like so many of the Cabernets and Chardonnays coming from all over. The whole purpose of the dinner, I was soon to learn, was to preview me on his new Cabernet and Chardonnay from the Langhe. At least he had the sense/sense of humor to name the Cabernet Darmaggi, which means "What a shame", which is what his father said when he learned of Angelo's plans.
Carl Steefel
Carl Steefel
Apparently I liked the Caprai wines better than many of you did, although I would not claim that they match the Bea wines in terms of soulfulness or character. They are certainly more conventional than the Bea wines, but the Sagrantino wines at least seem to have some character that sets them apart from the California Cabs that were mentioned. And a 2001 Caprai Collepiano tasted fairly recently was starting to come around, with the tannins (which normally don't bother me anyway)thoroughly tamed and integrated, and the sour cherry mid-palate coming to the fore.
Here are my recent Caprai notes (from last summer):
2008 Caprai Grecante Grechetto Colli
This is 100% Grechetto juice and shows a surprisingly intense citrus palate, with faint tropical fruit notes on the nose overwhelmed by slightly bitter citrus aromas, almost a quinine character. The wine shows fine balance, with a healthy dose of acidity. I really cannot remember why I didnt buy any of this, but it must have been my limited luggage space
2006 Caprai Montefalco Rosso (70% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot, 15% Sagrantino)
The new oak in this wine was pretty prominent on both the nose and the palate, but had a enough tannic structure that the effect was not overwhelming. Still this showed more Merlot character than I care for, giving it a slightly international or amorphous style that leaves me cold, or at least unimpressed.
2005 Caprai Rosso Outsider
According to the lady serving us, this wine spends 18 months in barrique. This 50% Merlot, 50% Cabrnet Sauvignon wine shows a healthy dose of new oak on the palate as you might expect, but the delineation and structure is much more evident here, especially as compared to the Rosso. On the nose, dusty aromas with a touch of toast probably reflect the time in barrique. I can certainly see somebody like Robert Parker or Jeff Leve liking this wine with its excellent depth and length,--this would give many a Bordeaux a run for the money.
2005 Caprai Sagrantino de Montefalco Collepiano
As good as the 2005 Rosso Outsider was, this wine trumped that wine ultimately through sheer force of character and originality. The wine shows a distinct floral character on the nose, with aromas of lavender and violet emerging as if from some great depth. The bottles we had at dinner a couple of nights earlier were even showier, perhaps because of the pairing with the truffle ravioli in a Sagrantino reduction. A beautifully balanced wine that, while still primary, is quite drinkable now if one can handle firm and authoritatively structured wines.
2005 Caprai Sangrantino de Montefalco 25 Anni
Another step up, similar in overall character to the Collepiano, but with another level of structure, nuance, and detail on both the nose and palate. The deeply pitched, fragrant nose has one thinking that they have stumbled into a violet patch. Slightly sweeter, deeper, and rounder in the mouth than the Collepiano, the long finish is positively palate staining, with newly found nuances emerging even on the diminuendo.
Here are my recent Caprai notes (from last summer):
2008 Caprai Grecante Grechetto Colli
This is 100% Grechetto juice and shows a surprisingly intense citrus palate, with faint tropical fruit notes on the nose overwhelmed by slightly bitter citrus aromas, almost a quinine character. The wine shows fine balance, with a healthy dose of acidity. I really cannot remember why I didnt buy any of this, but it must have been my limited luggage space
2006 Caprai Montefalco Rosso (70% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot, 15% Sagrantino)
The new oak in this wine was pretty prominent on both the nose and the palate, but had a enough tannic structure that the effect was not overwhelming. Still this showed more Merlot character than I care for, giving it a slightly international or amorphous style that leaves me cold, or at least unimpressed.
2005 Caprai Rosso Outsider
According to the lady serving us, this wine spends 18 months in barrique. This 50% Merlot, 50% Cabrnet Sauvignon wine shows a healthy dose of new oak on the palate as you might expect, but the delineation and structure is much more evident here, especially as compared to the Rosso. On the nose, dusty aromas with a touch of toast probably reflect the time in barrique. I can certainly see somebody like Robert Parker or Jeff Leve liking this wine with its excellent depth and length,--this would give many a Bordeaux a run for the money.
2005 Caprai Sagrantino de Montefalco Collepiano
As good as the 2005 Rosso Outsider was, this wine trumped that wine ultimately through sheer force of character and originality. The wine shows a distinct floral character on the nose, with aromas of lavender and violet emerging as if from some great depth. The bottles we had at dinner a couple of nights earlier were even showier, perhaps because of the pairing with the truffle ravioli in a Sagrantino reduction. A beautifully balanced wine that, while still primary, is quite drinkable now if one can handle firm and authoritatively structured wines.
2005 Caprai Sangrantino de Montefalco 25 Anni
Another step up, similar in overall character to the Collepiano, but with another level of structure, nuance, and detail on both the nose and palate. The deeply pitched, fragrant nose has one thinking that they have stumbled into a violet patch. Slightly sweeter, deeper, and rounder in the mouth than the Collepiano, the long finish is positively palate staining, with newly found nuances emerging even on the diminuendo.
Carl Steefel
Carl Steefel
As I said, I wouldn't want to put the Caprai up against a Bea. I had my first Bea, a 2001, in a restaurant in Umbria and it blew the whole table away at dinner. As a colleague of mine said, sort of Port-like in character, but without the sweetness and high alcohol. Anyway, this 2001 was a complex, completely original wine, surprisingly mature despite all of the anecdotal accounts to the contrary, with soft red fruit and tar notes on the shape-shifting palate. The inner mouth perfume really explodes...
I called up Bea at the last minute when in Umbria and he said he had to leave, so could not provide a tour for us. I suggested we might have an abbreviated tour and I could hear him chuckle on the other end of the line, and then said, "No, I don't do short tours"...
More recently, we had two bottles of the 1999 Bea. First was thoroughly oxidized, the second was much better, although still showing some volatile acidity that blew off with time. Here is my notes from that one:
Then to pair with the main course, four distinctive reds that were paired with Osso Bucco. A 1999 Paolo Bea Sagrantino de Montefalco Secco was opened up 3 hours before dinner, which helped to blow off some of the volatile acidity it showed. While this and other Bea wines are reported to take years to come around, this has not been my impression from tasting this one, the 1999, and a 2001 last summer. Who is to say what maturity is, but certainly this was showing secondary flavors that seemed to literally dance on the palate, with lush port-like fruit that exploded on the palate as inner mouth perfume. We had some discussion about how to describe this wine, with Steve suggesting the terms porty and raisiny, while others of us holding out for the distinction between these two. I guess this was a big one in its own way, but I was struck by how light it was on its feet, like Port without the high alcohol and sheer density, an acrobatic version of Pegaus Cuvee da Capo. Certainly a highly original wine by probably anybodys standards.
I called up Bea at the last minute when in Umbria and he said he had to leave, so could not provide a tour for us. I suggested we might have an abbreviated tour and I could hear him chuckle on the other end of the line, and then said, "No, I don't do short tours"...
More recently, we had two bottles of the 1999 Bea. First was thoroughly oxidized, the second was much better, although still showing some volatile acidity that blew off with time. Here is my notes from that one:
Then to pair with the main course, four distinctive reds that were paired with Osso Bucco. A 1999 Paolo Bea Sagrantino de Montefalco Secco was opened up 3 hours before dinner, which helped to blow off some of the volatile acidity it showed. While this and other Bea wines are reported to take years to come around, this has not been my impression from tasting this one, the 1999, and a 2001 last summer. Who is to say what maturity is, but certainly this was showing secondary flavors that seemed to literally dance on the palate, with lush port-like fruit that exploded on the palate as inner mouth perfume. We had some discussion about how to describe this wine, with Steve suggesting the terms porty and raisiny, while others of us holding out for the distinction between these two. I guess this was a big one in its own way, but I was struck by how light it was on its feet, like Port without the high alcohol and sheer density, an acrobatic version of Pegaus Cuvee da Capo. Certainly a highly original wine by probably anybodys standards.
Levi Dalton
Levi Dalton
Milziade Antano.
Matteo Mollo
Matteo Mollo
agreed.
Carl Steefel
Carl Steefel
And what do these cryptic responses mean? That this is a better producer than Caprai? That's my guess...
Matteo Mollo
Matteo Mollo
Ive had the Milziade wines several times. Both in italy and here in the states. I found the pure sagrantino to be really well done. It mixes tradition with a modern edge seemlessly. I am a huge sagrantino fan and enjoy trying as many producers as i can. I think these Milziade are on the top of their game at the moment. I have also had really good success with the Adanti Sagrantino (one of the best, well handled 2003's ive had from anywhere) and their rosso.
Both of these offer great QPR in the sag. family.
Both of these offer great QPR in the sag. family.
Carl Steefel
Carl Steefel
OK, thanks. Will check these out...
scottreiner
scott reiner
I was not a fan of the wines. Despite the fact that Marco Caprai says that he does not innoculate, does not irrigate, does not use any modern wine technology (micro oxiginater) etc... - all laudable practices, I found the wines lifeless and without character. Not sure, but I imagine they will not improve with age.
Marco was nice enough. Seemed to care about his farming and wine making. In fact, he answered every question I had for him with the exact answer I was looking for. I could not understand, however, how his laudable practices produced the wines I was drinking.
Avoid. Drink more Bea.
Marco was nice enough. Seemed to care about his farming and wine making. In fact, he answered every question I had for him with the exact answer I was looking for. I could not understand, however, how his laudable practices produced the wines I was drinking.
Avoid. Drink more Bea.
Florida Jim
Florida Jim
The 1994 and 1995 Sagrantino, 25 Anni, are two of the most tannic wines in my experience. I still have some of each and have yet to have a bottle of either that impressed me to the degree that cheap sagrantino did in small tratorria in Umbria.
Best, Jim
Best, Jim
Carl Steefel
Carl Steefel
Tough crowd...
Can't say that I agree that the Caprai will not improve with age, since I tasted an older one that had improved over younger examples...
Can't say that I agree that the Caprai will not improve with age, since I tasted an older one that had improved over younger examples...