We are planning to run a tour of Umbria this year to coincide with Eurochocolate festival which takes place in Perugia from 18th to 26th October so we are currently doing some research (it is a tough life but somebody has to do it!).
As part of our research we decided to visit the Virili winery in Montefalco as we had heard that they were pioneers in the matching of Montefalco's Sagrantino wines with food and in particular with chocolate. We know the wineries in Montefalco pretty well but had never visited Virili, which is one of the smallest in Umbria, producing only around 2,500 bottles a year, using exclusively Montefalco's native sagrantino grapes.
Visiting wineries is always fun, not just because you get to sample the wines, but also because the people who work there are always incredibly passionate and rightfully proud of the wine they produce. We were kept enthralled as the owner Piero took us on a voyage through the history of the wine production in Montefalco and how to match sagrantino with foods. It turns out that although the winery is very small it is also one of the oldest in the area and has been in the family for generations (decades ago the entire production each year was apparently bought by the Bulgari family, world renowned jewellers, who were decades ahead in appreciating sagrantino wine).
Two hours later we found ourselves in Piero's kitchen drinking Piero's delicious Sagrantino passito, discussing wine, life and everything inbetween with Piero and his 96 year-old mother. Piero explained how, although Sagrantino passito is considered to be a dessert wine, to be enjoyed after a meal, he also uses it in cooking (for example apples in passito and chocolate shavings) and even matches it with main courses (in particular he told us of a meal he had had a few days previously, during which he had converted a group friends to the idea of Sagrantino passito with Fiorentina steak to such a degree that the "normal" wine they opened went untouched, as bottles of passito were finished off).
We departed with a bottle of of Montefalco Sagrantino Secco, a bottle of Montefalco Sagrantino Passito (to try matching at home "con calma" -at our leisure), a sack of memories and a hefty appetite.
