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Company Description
The Pardi family comes from Montefalco, in Umbria.
Montefalco was one of the few towns where the vineyards were planted and protected within the town walls and the growing of the grapevine in the area dates back to the Pre-Roman age.
Our story begins in 1919, when the three Pardi brothers: Alfredo ( postmaster ) , Francesco (farmer) and Alberto ( merchant) decided to produce and market local wines .Alfredo was in charge of accountancy, Francesco worked in the vineyard and winery and Alberto marketed the wines.
The grapes used for the production partly belonged to the family and partly were bought from the local landowners. The wines were sold all over Umbria, and sometimes also out of the region, to important customers, such as the Vatican City.
The Sagrantino was exclusively Passito and the grape clusters were dried on straw mats for 2-3 months during winter before being pressed .
In those times about 30 quintals of Sagrantino Passito were produced and the ageing went on for two years. The Sagrantino Passito was marketed in five and ten litre bottles. Each bottle had a string and a cardboard tag, showing the name of the winery, the year of the harvest and the alcoholic content.
The delivery of the wines was made by demijohns that were carried by the “ cacciatora”, a long and narrow cart drawn by horses along the dusty roads.. Large quantities were delivered by 54 up to 140 litre barrels, carried by lorries.
The winery was successful and in 1925, at the exhibition of Oils and Wines from Umbria and Sabina, in the Town Hall in Montefalco , the Pardi Brothers were awarded the silver medal for the red wines by the Minister of National Economy.
In 1943 Alberto passed away and his brothers are elderly . In the following years the founders’ sons decide to enter upon a new business; they close down the winery and in 1949 establish the weaving mill Tessitura Pardi . The tradition and the competence of wine-growing were handed down by Alberto’s son, Rio Pardi who kept up producing small quantities of Sagrantino Passito.
In 2002 their great grand-sons Francesco, Gianluca Rio and Alberto Mario ( with the help of their parents Agostino and Alberto) , driven by the will of the Pardi family to keep on the tradition, restore the building in Via Giovanni Pascoli in Montefalco and revive their great grandfathers’ winery, with its indelible memory.
OUR SAGRANTINO
We are a small winery, with a long experience and try to revalue the territory with our wines by giving a personal interpretation
Sagrantino is an autochthonous vine in Umbria; it grows mainly in the municipality of Montefalco, a part of the territory of the municipalities of Bevagna, Gualdo Cattaneo, Castel Ritaldi and Giano dell’Umbria, all in the province of Perugia.
This vine can be used to produce Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG and Montefalco rosso DOC.
Sagrantino is not an immediate wine, it is usually considered a difficult wine to drink and unbalanced if it is not aged in bottle for at least ten years. This red wine has got a great quantity of tannins and poliphenols that make it particularly suitable for ageing, but owing to these tannins ,it may be sullen and aggressive.
Our wines are elegant, balanced, drinkable, even if they are endowed with body and a high alcoholic content : our Sagrantino is an evidence..
Giovanni Dubini, our wine-making expert – Albertino Pardi explains- has decided to make a short maceration with the skins for 6-7 days and the harvest at full maturation, to get a phenolic maturity (tannins).In this way we have a reduced extraction of green tannins (unripe), that give the feeling of greater astringency, a four year ageing is added and so it assures polymerization, by making them more delicate.
We try to make a wine that is elegant and drinkable straightaway, trying to overcome the difficult initial impact, maintaining the typicalness and the characteristic of the vine and of the vintage.
OUR BELIEF
Our production is based on our Grandfather’s old belief” good grapes to make good wine”-Albertino Pardi says.
The story of the Pardi winery is over one hundred years old and the family has always been very close. Even if the production of wine was stopped for some years, the flame of passion kept up burning under the ashes and in 2003 the present winery was established.
The same way of thinking and commitment of the great grandparents Alberto, Francesco and Alfredo Pardi, in 1919, are handed down by the new generations with respect and enthusiasm.
In the last few years many wine growers , to make a good wine, have taken more care of the winery than of the vineyard. We, on the contrary, are all involved in the process of making wine with our friend and wine-making expert Giovanni Dubini (he produces wine in Orvieto, in his family winery Palazzone), Tiziano Maschio ( the agronomist), Sandro Pugnali ( he takes care of our vineyards with the same passion as his father did with our Grandfather and as his Grandfather did with our Great-Grandfathers) , and Roberto Giuntella ( the cellarman).
We believe that the process of making wines endowed with “ a distinguished personality” and that express the territory and the vintage requires a scrupulous work in the vineyard. – Albertino says. In our wines we search for the cleanliness of fragrances, balance, the typicalness of the territory and of the vintage.
The Pardi family has always been attached to the territory with passion, competence, awareness,and for over one hundred years has been connected with the wine of Umbria.
We want to produce a wine that has its own precise identity and frankness given by the vine, the territory, the vintage, maintaining elegance and cleanliness.
A wine must be harmonious and drinkable, in spite of its alcoholic content. A great example is Sagrantino di Montefalco, a very tannic vine ; the Sagrantino DOCG must be made in purity, and its aggressiveness cannot be mitigated by other grape blends – Albertino Pardi continues.
We try to produce a refined, graceful, balanced and drinkable wine – -Albertino continues – also at the moment of its release, trying to overcome the difficult initial impact. We are a small winery, but nevertheless we want to enhance our territory with our wines giving a different interpretation.
Sagrantino is often considered a wine that is difficult to drink and unbalanced if it is not aged in bottle for a long time.
We think that to appreciate the wine, -Albertino says – people should know also the production process and the required phases. This is the reason why the people that come to our point of sale are welcomed by somebody of the family that accompanies them during the visit of the winery and of the vineyards. If you come between mid-October and early December you will see the process of the Sagrantino Passito. Montefalco is our territory, our reality and we believe that an interest in our area and wine can be achieved by our point of sale.
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