Idiosyncratic and Transformative Wines of Paolo Bea

100% Trebbiano - Skin Contact 

One of the early success stories in the modern-day revival of skin-macerated white wines, Bea’s beloved “Arboreus” originates from exceedingly old Trebbiano vines in the village of Spoleto. A striking instance of non-standard training, these ancient vines wrap themselves around the trunks and branches of trees (hence the wine’s name), growing and ripening high above the ground. The wine's palate is chiseled, markedly tannic (though well-balanced), and driven by resonant acidity, with the marzipan and apricot notes echoing strongly - Rosenthal Wine Merchants

Wine is a blend of roughly 60% Sangiovese, 25% Montepulciano and 15% Sagrantino.

Similarly large-scaled as the San Valentino above, the Pipparello is more overwhelmingly brooding, and even more intense in its concentration. The ultra-savory nose is a thick swamp of camphor, black olives, fresh tar, and sandalwood, with pretty hightoned spices lurking in the background. Its palate is arrestingly dense, yet it carries an incredible amount of energy given its overall disposition. This is a rough-and-tumble, wholly uncompromising wine without a polite bone in its body, yet it still manages to be erudite and nuanced—an embodiment of the spirit of the Bea style at its most extreme. - Rosenthal Wine Merchants

Rosso de Veo is a selection of the Bea estate’s younger Sagrantino vines, principally from the “Cerrete” vineyard which graces the highest point in Montefalco, between 1300 and 1500 feet above sea level. The soil is clay and limestone infused with small pebbles from an ancient riverbed. This wine is vinified in a similar fashion to the single vineyard Sagrantino with a long cuvaison which extends forty to fifty days. The wine is then aged one year in stainless steel tanks, two years in large oak barrels and another year in bottle before release. - Mad Rose Group

100% Sagratino 

Bea produces perhaps his most renowned wine from pure Sagrantino grown on the prized hilltop site of Pagliaro, situated at 1300 feet above sea level in Montefalco proper. The only wines that approach Bea’s in that regard are perhaps the most un-sculpted Syrah-based wines of the Northern Rhône, but even those feel more constrained compared to top vintages of Pagliaro. Similarly large in scale to the Rosso de Veo, this actually presents with greater precision and nuance, its overall attack more subtle but ultimately no less impactful—direct evidence of a great terroir translated with consummate skill. - Rosenthal Wine Merchants 

100% Sagratino 

It is difficult to believe that Montefalco Sagrantino can get any more profound than Bea’s beloved Pagliaro, but indeed it can. The family has owned a parcel in Cerrete, the highest-altitude vineyard in Montefalco, for some time, but it wasn’t until the 2007 vintage that Giampiero deemed the vines old enough to do justice to the cru’s potential. With its poor, mineral-rich soils and its acidity-preserving altitude, Cerrete yields a wine not more powerful than Pagliaro—in fact, it comes across as lighter on its feet—but with greater nuance, as if the settings on a microscope were dialed up to render even more detail - Rosenthal Wine Merchants