Umbria is a region in central Italy, “The land of Saint Francis of Assisi”. Umbria is a mainly hilly region with green gently rolling hills covered in vast vineyards and olive groves. In general we can state that the summers are dry and sunny and that the winters can be rather cold and wet, especially at higher elevations as in the Apennines. Umbria is Italy’s heartland, the only region that doesn’t border the sea. The vineyards are found at higher altitudes to escape from the hot and dry climate. The sun, the many rivers and chalky soil encouraged the people of this area to begin the production of wine at an early stage. Hence the winegrowers can fall back on a long tradition of wine making. The white DOC Orvieto is also notable for being the most important commercial denomination of origin from the Umbria region, founded in 1971. We make a distinction between the traditional wines from the original Orvieto Classico zone – where the appellation orginated – and the rest of Orvieto , where the vineyards were planted much later. The composition of the grapes remain identical and consist of 60% Grechetto and Procanico, the remainder is made up of other grapes. This results in dry and fruity wines.The red wines are well known due to the appellation Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG. A full-bodied, powerful,tannic wine.
