Paolo Bea, Montefalco Rosso Riserva Pipparello, 2020

Pipparello is Paolo Bea's Montefalco Rosso Riserva, and it gets the full single-vineyard treatment: a red from one hilltop site, made with the same patience as the rest of this famously uncompromising Umbrian cellar. The vineyard sits at 1,300 feet in Montefalco on clay and gravel, with vines at least 20 years old. Bea's blend here is Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Sagrantino. Nothing in the cellar is rushed. Fermentation starts on its own in steel tanks with no temperature control, and the house bottles its wines unfined and unfiltered, adding sulfur only if it's needed. Giampiero Bea has run this proper Umbrian fattoria for a long time, and it still raises animals and grows olives, fruit and vegetables alongside the vines. That approach is why he's considered a pillar of Italian natural wine. His father Paolo, a farmer through and through, made old-school wines when Italy was busy modernizing, and he spoke an Umbrian dialect so thick that outsiders could barely follow him. Pipparello is a good way into what this family does.