Tabarrini, Montefalco DOCG (Umbria, Italy) Sagrantino 2016

 The Sagrantinos of Umbria provide the most puckery of French wine kisses, the epitome of astringent phenolics, which provide aging potential and backbone, trying to reach an agreeable balance with lovely cherry fruits.  As a result, opening a Montefalco, unless you know the producer, is an exercise of hoping the genie in the bottle is in a good mood.  This time the genie is smiling, although it is a crinkled grin.  To get there, the producers soaked the grapes on the skins for more than a month, aged the wine in French oak for three years, then bottle aged it for another year.  The wine has not lost its astringency, but you can still taste the lovely cherry fruit lurking there, the wine’s great minerality, its lean and leathery structure, and, of course, the puckery and drying tannins in the finish.  It will develop further with age, but don’t expect too much blossoming by decanting.  But as is, this Sagrantino is a delightful drink for those not scared of tannins, especially if they pair it with a juicy, rare strip steak.