Like jammy fruit? Like tannins, comfortable yet dry and crisp? Like acidity that helps meld wine and food? Well, on this tasting stop, your wishes are fulfilled with Messina Hof Winery’s 2019 Sagrantino Reserva, Texas High Plains (Double Barrel Aged). This wine has incredible structure that integrates tannin and deep-rich, dark-berry flavors, throwing in a helping of baking spice and vanilla, too. Taste now and enjoy, or cellar it to experience expanding tertiary nuances of coffee, chocolate, truffle and tobacco.
Messina Hof Winery founders Paul Vincent and Merrill Bonarrigo, after experiencing Sagrantino in Umbria – a central sun-baked region of Italy, they decided to bring Sagrantino to Texas, an equally sunny and warm wine region. They purchased cuttings of this not-so-common grape variety and made one of the first Sagrantino wines to be grown in Texas. The grapes in this wine were grown at an elevation of 3,600 feet in the Texas High Plains, fermented and aged for 20 months in hybrid French-American oak barrels.
In Umbria, the home turf of Sagrantino is Montefalco where the wines are known as Sagrantino di Montefalco. The style of red wine made there is 100% Sagrantino and it is something offered nowhere else in Italy. Sagrantino di Montefalco is quite rare with estimates of only 400 acres of Sagrantino vines. As of now, there may be more Sagrantino grown in Texas than anywhere outside Montefalco.
If you consider yourself a foodie, this tasting stop is for you, too. Sagrantino makes dark red, nearly opaque wines packed with jammy fruit (think mixed blackberry-raspberry preserves) and pleasant tannins yielding wines that can be drunk now (and still improve in 5 to 10 years of bottle aging), and that also bring lovely acidity to brighten your palate. Feel free to pair Messina Hof Sagrantino with grilled steaks and chops sprinkled with Mediterranean herbs. You can also savor Sagrantino with a meaty Ragù, mushroom pastas saturated with shaved truffles, or simply served with a veggie and tomato packed meat loaf.
This 2019 Messina Hof Winery Sagrantino is part of the Gold and Double Gold legacy created by the Bonarrigos that includes accolades for their Sagrantinos at international wine competitions in both Texas and California.
Messina Hof has earned its reputation as a leading producer of 100% Texas wine. They are also proud to be one of the oldest wineries in the state. Besides their original winery location in Bryan, Texas, they now have three other winery locations throughout Texas: Hill Country (Fredericksburg), Grapevine (DFW), and Harvest Green (west Houston). This makes a tasting stop at a Messina Hof winery close and convenient.
What better time than now to visit the Bonarrigo family?
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