Fratelli Adanti is an estate winery in the Montefalco region of Umbria, in central Italy. Adanti produces mainly red wines under the Montefalco Rosso DOC, the Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG and the Montefalco Sagrantino Passito DOCG. The estate’s white wines are made under the Colli Martani DOC, Montefalco Bianco DOC and Umbria IGT.
Owners: Sisters Daniela and Donatella Adanti.
Staff: Mauro Monicchi was consulting here in the early 2000s.
Background: The company was founded in the 1960s, when Domenico Adanti decided to buy Villa Arquata, renovating the old convent of the Friars Celestine, which had been built on ruins dating originally to the Roman and late Renaissance periods. Adanti replanted the old existing vineyards with new ones. The first real winemaker here was Alvaro Palini, a fashion designer and friend of owner Domenico Adanti. Palini worked in Florence and Milan, and then between 1962-1974 in Paris with Franklin Schaumann who created the Sisley brand (now owned by Benetton). Palini, who as a boy had seen his grandfather make Sagrantino, learnt about winemaking by visiting Bordeaux and Burgundy. He eventually became Domenico Adanti’s winemaker, with his 1980 vintage. This was one of the first commercially available Sagrantino wines, and soon gained a good reputation, having been made from lower than usual yields in order to get riper tannins and fruit expression in what were dry (rather than passito) wines.
Vineyards: 40ha of land, 30ha of which are vineyards and 10ha are olive groves. The vineyards and olives straddle the hilly areas of Arquata and Colcimino. The main grapes are Sangiovese and Sagrantino. Cabernet, Barbera, Merlot and Grechetto are also grown. One Sagrantino vineyard is in Bevagna, in Vocabulario Arquata, at 250m on calcareous clay soil at 250 metres.
White wines
Colli Martani DOC Grechetto, Arquata: 2001 A crisp blend of Grechetto and Trebbiano.
Montefalco Bianco DOC Grechetto, Arquata:
Red wines
Nìspero, Umbria IGT Rosso: Barbera, Merlot and Cabernet.
Arquata, Umbria IGT Rosso: Barbera, Merlot and Cabernet.
Montefalco Rosso DOC: 2009 70% Sangiovese, 15% Sagrantino, 15% Merlot. 14%.
Montefalco Rosso DOC Riserva: Sagrantino, plus Sangiovese and Merlot.
Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG: 2006 14%.
Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG, Arquata: 1998 Bottled.
Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG, Il Domenico: Dedicated to Domenico Adanti who founded the company. This comes from the hills of Colcimino.: 2005 14%.
Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG Passito: The grapes are air-dried for 2 months.
Contact
Fratelli Adanti
Arquata di Bevagna
06031 Perugia (PG), Italy
Website: www.cantineadanti.com
Bibliography
Ian D’Agata, Native wine grapes of Italy (University of California Press, 2014), p.425.