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The city of Montefalco, near Perugia, owes its name to Frederick II, who stayed there around 1250, on the highest hill on the edge of the Umbrian Valley. That very area, rich in art and history, celebrated by Pliny, George Gordon Byron and Giosuè Carducci, is where Arnaldo Caprai farm was established in 1971 – right on the rolling hills surrounded by willows and poplars.
The farm is specialized in Sagrantino di Montefalco, a great native red vine that has grown exclusively in this area for about 400 years. This endemic vine would have faced extinction, had it not been for Marco Caprai, who fell in love with it and decided to recover its great tradition.

Sagrantino di Montefalco is a vine species with a rather early flowering, followed by a medium-late ripening. The plant appears semi-erect, with low vigour. The apex of the shoot has a shape similar to a cotton fan, looking green and whitish, with crimson edges. The adult and well-spread leaves are medium-sized and trilobated, sometimes featuring five lobes. The setose ribs feature a U-shaped section of the petiole; the upper side of the leaves appear vesicate and bullous, while the lower one has a moderate fluffy appearance.
The cluster is medium-small sized, with a cylindrical-conical shape, while the berries look small and have a fairly pruinose, black, medium-sized and quite consistent skin.

In this very area, the vine grows well on all types of soil, even the deep and fresh ones. In addition to Sagrantino, two other native vines are cultivated, Sangiovese and Grechetto.

The Sagrantino vineyards feature a compact, high-density training system (spurred cordon and guyot techniques), since they tend to excessive yield and delayed ripening with the traditional systems.

Arnaldi Caprai Winery combines tradition, innovation and thorough respect for the territory, through continuous experimentation also in the agronomic field.
The cultivation techniques are aimed at to rationalizing the phytosanitary management and the reduction of nitrogen-based fertilization; Arnaldi Caprai is also seriously focused on the genetic enhancement and the search for new clones while implementing the best environmental conditions for vine cultivation.
Traditional, polluting machinery is strictly limited all over the farm, while electricity and water are thoroughly managed in order to carefully monitor consumption and avoid unnecessary waste.

As we speak, several experiments are well underway to improve farming techniques and grape quality through the implementation of organic fertilization and different mixtures of “green” manure plant species: totally natural fertilization is, therefore, coming soon.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)