Wine of the Week! 10/30/23

Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Grechetto

Normally $16.99 / Now on Sale for $12.96
100% Grechetto

Grechetto is a white wine grape originating in Greece (hence the name) but now planted mostly in Central Italy’s Umbria region. It has thick skins making it resistant to Downy Mildew, which, in turn, permits longer hang-times, allowing it to fully ripen. It’s a grape with a lot of sugar, so it works well in dessert wines, but when vinified dry, it produces intense but not fruity flavors. It’s a mineral-like, herbal, almost citrus grape that pairs well with the artichokes and asparagus range of vegetable dishes as well as going great — ironically enough, coming from its landlocked home in central Italy — with seafood. Predominantly a blending grape, Grechetto is mostly known as the primary grape in the white blends of Orvieto …

… but right now, we’re not interested in Orvieto or blending grapes in the southwest of Umbria. Oh, no. We’re interested in Grechetto on its own, up in Umbria’s heart — Montefalco.

Montefalco sits in Perugia province, in central Umbria, about 60 miles north of Rome and 90 miles south of Florence. Here, you will find single variety Grechetto wines, specifically this one from Cantina Scacciadiavoli.

Founded in 1884, Scacciadiavoli is in its fourth generation of ownership and operation by the Pambuffetti family, after the late patriarch Amilcare Pambuffetti bought the property in 1954, a property he had once worked as a lowly teenage farmhand. Sitting on a hilltop, 1300 feet above sea level, they sustainably grow grapes in sandy-clay soil.

Aged in steel tanks, on lees, the Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Grechetto offers dry, mineral fruit that reclines on a bed of light acid, with a slight earthiness in the background to give it character. Pour this wine to accompany fish dishes, pasta primavera, and/or whatever autumnal bounty from your garden that you were able to keep from the rabbits and the deer.