2022 Paolo Bea Umbria Rosso "Cotidie"

“Cotidie” (“quotidian” in Latin) was conceived as an “everyday” wine for its relatively easygoing and drinkable spirit. The methodology behind it feels outré today but would have been common practice for the ancients to whom its Latin name pays tribute: a co-fermentation of both red and white grapes—in this case, Sagrantino and Trebbiano—grown in close proximity to one another, and yielding a lip-smacking wine that’s hard to pigeonhole. In its vibrant ruby color, it sits in the interzone between a dark rosato and a light red, and it offers the heady spice we all love in Bea’s Sagrantino, albeit on a softer, lighter frame.

References in the archives of Montefalco, the beautiful hill town in Umbria, document the presence of the Bea family in this locality as early as 1500. This tiny estate is the classic Italian fattoria, producing wine, raising farm animals for trade and home consumption and working the land to produce olives, fruits and vegetables. To this day, the Bea family raises and produces much of wha