04/04/2019
Come to Umbria for a different wine experience. From tiny producers to megagalactic superstars.
UMBRIA
VITICULTURE AND WINES
As well as most of the Italian regions, Umbria has its wine culture and history, witnessed by a rich evidence of ancient viticulture found in Etruscan crockery, Roman documents like Virgilio’s and Plinio’s who described vineyards and grapes in our region; also, there are many sources about a flourishing viticulture in the Middle Ages by the Cistercian and Benedictine monastic orders. Even most famous renaissance painters like Pinturicchio and Signorelli were paid with the local wine for some of their important painting works. So, we can comfortably say that, since centuries, Umbria Viticulture and wine production has an important rule in the local agriculture economy and is now one of the most important branches of the agri-food system.
The regional vineyard area is extended on approximately 12,200 hectares. Beside this, the incidence of Umbria on the total Italian wine production is still limited both in terms of vineyards (1.9%) as well as in terms of the number of estates and wineries involved in this crop (2.9%). Also, the realty of the Umbrian wineries consists in small average size (a little more than one hectare), also lower compared to the national average (1.6 hectares).
The average annual wine production in Umbria is around 700,000 hectolitres. We have about 240 wineries of which about 20% are run by young entrepreneurs; in our region it is still common to find wineries run as family business or young generations who took over the grandparent’s land in order to carry on the family wine traditions. An important role, in the regional scene, is also played by the cooperative wineries that represent about 40% of the total regional wine production.
The local appellation’s system includes 2 DOCG wines: Montefalco Sagrantino and Torgiano Rosso Riserva; 13 DOC wines: Amelia, Assisi, Colli Altotiberini, Colli Martani, Colli del Trasimeno, Colli Perugini, Lake Corbara, Montefalco, Orvieto, Rosso Orvietano, Spoleto, Todi, Torgiano; 6 IGT wines: Umbria, Allerona, Bettona, Cannara, Narni and Spello.
In terms of wine types, by the color, we see a prevalence (at least in quantity) of the production of white wines, driven in particular by the Orvieto wine area and by the other white Umbrian varieties (mostly grechetto) growing through the several IGT wine areas. The main red grape varieties produced are Sangiovese (mostly in the IGT wines also blended with some international varieties), followed by the Montefalco wines dominated by the Sagrantino grape.
In the last years we saw an important growth of the investments made by the local wine entrepreneurs, aimed at improving the quality of their productions and expanding the wine sales markets especially out of the European Community. The common goal of most of the regional wineries is also to enhance the strong connection between the production and the identity of the terroir, the landscape, the art and the culture of our region. In this context, beside the most famous and historical regional appellation, such as the Orvieto, the Montefalco Sagrantino and the Torgiano, other regional productive realities are also coming out working hard to exploit the regional autochthonous varieties, both those more known like Grechetto, as well as those still less known, but still remarkable for their oenological potentials, such as Ciliegiolo, Trebbiano Spoletino, Gamay Perugino and Grero.
The investments made were focused on modernising the cellars, innovation in technological processes, promoting wines on the international markets as well as restructuring vineyards, thanking also to the financial support provided by the OCM grants. The export of Umbrian wines in 2017 exceeded the proportion of €34.000.000, with an increase of 2.4% in comparison to the previous year (source Wine Monitor).
At last but not at least, Umbria is also developing an excellent offer to the wine tourism business: wineries, accommodation facilities, associations, tourism services are all focused and coordinated to welcome visitors and let them enjoy as much as possible the beauty and the richness of our region.
