True Wines & The Ultimate Cellar



I had the very good fortune (i have said and will say this many times over the course of the next few months) of spending the day with Giampiero Bea of Paolo Bea in the town of Montefalco, home to Sagrantino di Montefalco. Giampiero is well known in the world of wine. Not only for the fantastic wines he produces, but also for his innovation in cellar technique and his philosophy of making “true wines”. He is one of the founders of a small group of winemakers called Vini Veri. They abide by a set of principles which outlines their mission to “focus on production that reaches the objective of obtaining wine free of acceleration and stabilization, that returns the balance between man and nature’s seasons.” Basically, they are making wine with extremely low added sulfites (if any at all), no nutrients to speed up the fermentation and no forced temperature control. This is a delicate process which leaves room for many mistakes. But, Giampiero takes this risk. And it pays off.

The highlight of my visit was to see Bea’s incredibly unique cellar which is still under construction. Giampiero is not only a winemaker, but an architect as well. Which certainly comes in handy when wanting to build a state of the art, never before realized cellar. The work begins in the vineyard where he uses no herbicides or chemical fertilizers, cultivates and plants only non-genetically modified indigenous varietals and harvests the grapes by hand. If this wasn’t enough, he harvests and bottles only during a waning moon because the natural processes of nature are at rest, therefore slowing down the active bacterial growth of a waxing moon. The work then continues in the cellar.

lines and vines

bars of stone

windows windows everywhere

The cellar is made of whole porous stone blocks. Which absorb the heat from the sun and keep the heat away from the fermenting juice, aging wine and drying grapes. The temperature inside will of course rise and fall during the seasons but at a more even pace. The entire facility is open to the air and breeze with the exposed grids built into the stones walls and the multitude of windows throughout. One of my favorite rooms in the building is the drying room where rows upon rows of sagrantino grapes dry to make the prized Sagrantino Passito dessert wine.

the man and the grapes

sagrantino fields forever

The innovation continues with the tubes of air he has built from a nearby hill under the ground reaching the barrel room in the bottom of the building. This creates a constant flow of cool air from the ground up. There is soil and a water misting system also built under the floor to create humidity for the barrels. I could go on and on with the ingenious ways in which Giampiero has married his knowledge of architecture and winemaking to create truly innovative techniques in order to make the absolute best natural product. The grapes and the land speak for themselves in their purest form. And they sing.

quite a pair

the label of all labels

the man and the juice

2 Comments
  • rachel h.
    October 15, 2009

    brilliant! i am so glad you got to met this guy, he is so fascinating. clever clever clever. gotta love it.
    your pics are quite lovely also.

  • Joy the Baker
    October 21, 2009

    oooh wowza! i remember learning about this back in the wine class days of cube. amazing that you’re there!