To write about the Mattioli family and Collecapretta is a tricky task for me. These are some of my favorite wines in the world, but whenever I describe them to people there’s always the sense that the details about the project never fully contain their emotionalized history. Even the Mattioli themselves seem to lack the vocabulary for their own life’s work in context. They are nonetheless extremely proud of their craft and produce a range of quietly joyous wines from a noble Umbrian heritage, the culmination of a family vinekeeping legacy that dates back centuries, now being put in the hands of Annalisa, Vittorio and Anna’s focused and talented daughter.

A couple finer points can help us begin to put the picture into focus. First, they never really sought a market for their wines and only sold to individuals (local wine aficionados) and good restaurants in Umbria and Tuscany, not having the pressure to pay for a renewed lease on a house or winery to make another vintage (the family has been settled on their little hilltop property literally hundreds of years). Next, on all the front labels there is always a dry, academic description of the cycles of the growing season, harvest conditions, and number of bottles made that belies how untechnical and spirited the wines actually taste. Lastly and of great importance to us, they have never used additives in their winemaking out of respect for their grapes that live among olive trees on beautiful hillsides of clay away from any influence of industrial agriculture.

While terroir has become an increasingly contrived and amorphous concept in our little universe, there is no denying the influence in particular of the natural yeasts that develop in the Mattioli’s vineyards as the signature imprint of their wines. No matter the color of the wine you’re tasting from Collecapretta, they each absorb and give back the same soaring qualities as a gift from the Mother yeast.

There is nothing really like the honeyed and bouncy Trebbiano Spoletino to be found in the Vigna Vecchia and Terre dei Preti, full of white flower and dandelion perfume, the crunchy and rustic Ciliegiolo of Lautizio and Rosato, or the impressive structure of the epic Le Cese, Il Burbero, and Merlo Nero. They are glorious examples of a forgotten regional Italian wine.

Mac

2019 Vigna Vecchia (Trebbiano Spoletino) $39

2019 Terre dei Preti (Trebbiano Spoletino maceration) $39

2019 Malvasia dello Scarparo (Malvasia) $39

2019 Pigro delle Sorbe (Greco) $42

2019 il Rosato (Ciliegiolo rosé) $32 (out)

2019 Lautizio (Ciliegiolo) $32 (out)

2018 Le Cese (Sangiovese) $39 (out)

2018 il Burbero (Ciliegiolo, Merlot, Sangiovese) $42 (out)

2018 Merlo Nero (Merlot) $53 (out)

2016 Selezione delle Cese (Sangiovese old vines) $68