Sportoletti excels at making beautifully rendered wines at great prices
Fair warning. I’m going to gush. But, for good reason. Just over eight years ago a bit of research and persistence turned up recommendations by other wine lovers to seek out the Sportoletti Cantina, which is south of Assisi, and just north of Spello. I had been making a list of wineries to visit in nearby Montefalco, home of the spectacular Sagrantino (a BIG wine that ages spectacularly), when I came across this one fellow’s article urging readers to visit Sportoletti. I’m one to follow advice to veer off the beaten path. Boy, am I glad I did.
Sportoletti Cantina has been around since the late seventies
The family started out, playing around with several varietals. Years later, they’d focused their efforts for five wines – two red, two whites, and a dessert wine. Yes, they wisely decided on perfecting fewer wines vs having a huge selection. Today, Sportoletti produces somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter-of-a-million bottles of wine. And, guess what? Many of them make their way to the United States. I hope, by the time you’ve watched my video about this winery you’ll be hopping online to find a distributor close to home!
Four of us made our way to the Sportoletti Cantina on a beautiful late-May day.
We were warmly greeted by Remo Sportoletti (one of the two brothers who run the winery) and Fabio Sportoletti, his nephew. We had a local food and wine expert in tow, Elizabeth Wholey, whose book, Sustenance: Food Traditions in Italy’s Heartland (Amazon.com) speaks to the foods, and food fairs, of the Upper Tiber Valley. Elizabeth, and her wine partner, Rossana, have a wine blog called The Wine Girls (thewinegirls@wordpress.com).
To help bring this experience to life, I created my second YouTube video (woohoo!). I opted out of copious notes about the wines, so I urge you to watch the video, and to follow-up by visiting the Sportoletti website.
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And, don’t miss out on their olive oil!
Even if you don’t like wine, making a trip to Sportoletti to sample and purchase their organic olive oil is well worth your time. I go into a panic when we’re running low here at home (we’re well-stocked for the next six months!)
Below is Sportoletti’s contact information. Please reach out to Fabio, at the email address indicated, and be sure to tell him you heard about Sportoletti from Jed at ItalyWise. Fabio, and the entire family and staff are incredibly warm and generous with their time!
Sportoletti Ernesto e Remo
società agricola semplice
Via Lombardia, 1 06038 Spello (PG)
Tel. +39 0742 651461 Fax +39 0742 652349
e-mail: info@sportoletti.com
Ciao, Jed-
We have been following your blog for sometime now, and really enjoy it! Thank you.
We just returned from Umbria last night…we have a long term lease near Lago Trasimeno.
Anyway, this trip we decided to take your advice and visit Sportoletti.
What a treat! We bought several bottles of both red and white wines. My husband Johnny loves the reds, I went nuts over the Grecchetto wines. We put a few reds away for our return in March.
We loved the whole experience, thanks so much for sharing this place.
Next, maybe the lovely goat farm you are making videos about!
Best to you,
Janelle & Johnny
Monterey, California
Ciao Janelle & Johnny, My apologies for such a tardy reply. Thank you for writing and for following my blog. I’m delighted you visited Sportoletti. I hope you met Fabio––what an incredibly nice man. I love all of their wines. The Grecchetto is so nice in summer, served super cold. The reserve white is so nice with fish and seafood. And, the red table wine is such a great value. And, the Villa Fidelia Rosso is one of my all-time favorite red wines. I always keep several bottles in my cellar.
I hope you do end up visiting La Porta dei Parchi. Nunzio and the rest of the people are incredibly kind and welcoming!
Best, Jed
Ciao Jed,
We are Anne and Paul from Hingham, MA and we SO enjoyed your video! We spend our winters in Umbria in the hills above the Niccone valley and Elisabetta is a long-time dear friend of ours. We will add the Sportoletti cantina to our list of places to visit this fall! Hope to meet you one of these winters!
Anne
Ciao Anne, Thanks for writing. I’m so glad you enjoyed my video. I used to spend a week or two every year in Needham, when my sister and her family lived there. Yes, I hope to meet you as well, so let’s stay in touch and coordinate our schedule come fall/winter! Jed
I’m enjoying your videos Jed. I tried my hand at making one when I was working. Haven’t made one since. We visited Sportoletti a couple of years ago. Love their wines too. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Nancy! I love learning yet another new skill, and now that I’m not so intimidated, I’m chomping at the bit to do more. Piano, piano… Hope you and Luther are well!