Paolo Bea 'Lapideus' Bianco Umbria IGT 2021
Paolo Bea 'Lapideus' Bianco Umbria IGT 2021
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$8499
$84.99
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$7499
$74.99
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93 pts Vinous
The 2021 Lapideus is a deep golden hue. Its perfumed bouquet boasts incense and spice drops, freshly sliced nectarines and hints of clove. This floods the palate with round and supple textures offset by salty minerality and crisp orchard fruits. The 2021 gains a spicier personality with each passing second. It mixes sweet and sour through the contrasting finale, as tangerine and lemon rind traces fade slowly. This is beautifully balanced and exotic, having spent thirty-four days macerating on the skins and finished at just 11% abv. Fantastic.
Grapes: Grechetto 100% Trebbiano Spoletino
“Lapideus” Umbria Bianco: Giampiero acquired a parcel of 80-year-old Trebbiano Spoletino in the town of Pigge di Trevi several years back, and thus with this 2014 we have an exciting new addition to the Bea lineup. Arising from a cooler microclimate than the “Arboreus” above, “Lapideus” spent a lengthy 35 days on it skins after pressing, followed by 210 additional days on the gross lees—a similar vinification to “Arboreus,” yet one that yielded entirely different results. Though no less deeply amber in its appearance, “Lapideus” has a leaner, racier carriage than the broad-shouldered “Arboreus,” with more filigree, a less overwhelmingly intense nose of apricots, cloves, and candied ginger. If “Arboreus” is a sea to swim in, “Lapideus” is a rocket to ride, emphasizing drive and lift over layered density. It is still a wine of impressive power, especially given its modest 12% alcohol, but the fruit is more direct, pure, and foregrounded. So often the so-called “orange wines” seem to stand alone, iconoclastic creations that defy fine-tuned peer-group comparisons and revel in their singular personalities. Even the discourse that surrounds them tends to treat them more as wines of technique than wines of terroir. Thus, it is fascinating to experience the same grape variety given roughly the same treatment by the same grower, whereby the differences in the wines are largely driven by the differences in their underlying places of origin.
Appellation: Umbria Bianco IGT
In the Vineyard: From a parcel near the commune of Pigge di Trevi of limestone-clay and gravel soils. Cordon trained, the vines are 80-years-old and on prephylloxera rootstock. Yields are managed low, manually picked at harvest usually in early October.
Production: 1,800 bottles
Avg ABV: 12%
Vineyard: From co-planted parcels in the Pagliaro vineyard, which faces south and southwest at 1,300 feet above sea-level. Limestone-clay and gravel. Vines trained in Cordon
Winemaking: After crushing and destemming, wine ferments spontaneously in stainless-steel tanks, spending at least 2 weeks on its skins. Vertical basket press wine blended back into the free run.
Maturation: c. Time on lees is 24 months in steel tanks with spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Sulfur: 40-55 mg/l total sulfur (normal for low sulfur wines)
