Montefalco is the head-town of the “Road” of one of the most famous wines in Umbria; it lays upon a hill facing over the thousand colours of an exciting landscape made of vineyards, olive groves, tilled fields and winding hills. The artistic, cultural, landscape, and wine and gastronomical aspects make Montefalco one of most important centres of Umbria, among the most visited by foreign and italian tourists. For that viewpoint it has been given the nickname of “banister of Umbria”. The agriculture tradition of Montefalco gives the tourist, as well as to the passionate generally, a high quality oil and precious wine (including the “Rosso” and the “Sagrantino di Montefalco” as well as the Grechetto), while the historical textile masterpieces are widely shown and visible in the town churches and by the  San Francesco Civic Museum. The original name of the village: “Coccorone” has nothing more about the actual name. Eversince the XIth century it was the scene of the birth of the institution as a Commune and then the Renaissance one. It has hosted important characters of history  like Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the IInd Svevia, as well as the Spoleto Dukes. It is just to Frederick IInd’s presence there that Montefalco has to thank for its actual name, for practising huntings by the Falcon Predator. In 1848 the Pope Pio IX named it “city”. 

Plinius the Old in his “Naturalis Historiae” writes about “Itriola” vine as the typical one of the Montefalco land, that nowdays is close to the  actual Sagrantino; since the vine does not look like any other else at all some scientists consider the Sagrantino as a vine of local origin. Some others consider that vine as taken from Asia Minor by San Francesco followers, and the name should come from the use of the wine during monks’ religious functions (Sacraments). However Montefalco is said to be tilled with vineyards already  in 1088. In the church of Medieval Origin of San Bartholomew in Montefalco, on the outer wall of the apse you can find some bas-relieves portraying  vine-shoots and bunches of grapes.

In 1451, the well known florentine painter Benozzo Gozzoli, as he was called by Francesco monks to paint the walls of the apse of their church (nowadays it is the Civic Museum in Montefalco, among the most important of the Centre of Italy) maybe he refers to Sagrantino in the painting the red wine bottle on the Knight from Celano’s dressed table (series of the “Story of the Life of San Francesco”).

During the Renaissance Eve the Montefalco wine is already known and appreciated as a prestigious wine, so much that in 1565 the Superinten-dent of Perugia’s Fortress Mr.Cipriano Piccolpasso quoted it in the dossier of the Papal States destined to the Pope. It can be certainly stated that the Sagrantino is almost over  400 years old, for in a hand-written document dated of 1598 and preserved by the Notary Archive of Assisi there is the first quotation of Sagrantino grapevine. In 1622, the Cardinal Boncompagni, Envoy of  Perugia, increases the sentences provided by the Communal Rule, providing even the sentence to hanging for whoever would cut the Grapevine branches.

Nowadays in Montefalco there is the seat of the Consorzio di tutela vini di Montefalco besides of the Association Sagrantino Wine Road and the National Centre of Passito wines.