Historical information about sagrantino
There is a lot of information about sagrantino and historical evidence dating back to ancient times. Pliny the Old in his “Natural History” describes the Itriola, typical grapes of the region, which according to several scholars could be one and the same as Sagrantino grapes Other sources hypothesise that the vines were imported from Asia Minor by Saint Frances’ followers: the name can be linked to the Sacraments because the monks made a raisiny wine from the grapes to be used for religious rites. However believers of a further theory, that the wine is originally from the area and a cross of local grapes, are not lacking.
As far back as 1088 there is written evidence of vineyards in Montefalco and numerous documents dating back to the thirteenth century which document the constant care “the vine growers reserved for the vineyards”. From the first half of the fourteenth century the communal laws started to protect vines and wine, dedicating whole chapters and sections of communal statutes to them. In 1451 the famous Florentine painter Benozzo Gozzoli, called upon by the Franciscan monks to paint frescos in the apse of their church, today one of the most important civic museums in central Italy, maybe alluded to Sagrantino when he painted the bottle of red wine on the knight Celano’s table in the frescos dedicated to San Frances’ life.
From 1540 a communal decree officially established the starting date of the grape harvest in Montefalco. The frosts in the winter of 1586 were a disaster for the Montefalco vines, which only started to produce again after many years. In 1622 Cardinal Boncompagni, legate at Perugia, tightened up on the sanctions established by the communal statute, foreseeing even “ the penalty of being sentenced to hanging if someone cut the vines”. The first document which officially cites vines dates back to the sixteenth century and is preserved in the notarial archive in Assisi. Rules and regulations of the production of controlled and guaranteed denomination of origin of Montefalco wine, dry and Passito types.
