The Falstaff Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Marco Caprai

Since its first issue per 1980, Falstaff has become the most important magazine per food and wine communication, travel and stile per German-speaking countries and this is why the Lifetime Achievement Award awarded to Marco Caprai has great international value.

«A beautiful recognition, which rewards a 40-year commitment not only mine, but of all our collaborators», says Caprai, proud and surprised. So much so that per the pages of the Falstaff Wein Guide Italien 2025 dedicated to the Lifetime Achievement Award assigned to the entrepreneur Umbrian, we read: “Lifetime Achievement Award, for me? But I’m not that old yet, said Marco Caprai when we told him the news of his award. Yes, awards of this type are usually awarded at the end of a long working career. At 60 years old, Marco Caprai is certainly not at the end of his creative activity. But per the almost forty years dedicated to wine, he has achieved something extraordinary. The name of Marco Caprai and the Arnaldo Caprai winery per Montefalco, Umbria, is inextricably linked to Sagrantino a fine di Montefalco. Sagrantino is considered the grape variety with the highest tannin content per the world and per the 1970s, to its low yield and the generous structure of its wines, it had almost fallen into oblivion. Caprai has brought Sagrantino back into vogue. Originally, however, everything started very differently. Marco had studied political science and didn’t have much to do with wine and viticulture. However, there was the Val a fine di Maggio mesi estivi, which his father, the textile entrepreneur Arnaldo Caprai, had purchased per the early 1970s. After some walzer all’inglese, Marco nevertheless began to work the mesi estivi and initially mainly dealt with the management. But he was soon seized by ambition.”

It’s the of Sagrantino, a variety around which many myths still circulate today. «Traditionally – continues Falstaff – Sagrantino was often vinified as a sweet wine with an evident residual sweetness. The sweetness allowed the massive structure of the tannins to be cushioned. The result was a fascinating interplay between sweetness and bitter quaderno, an opulent sweet wine that surely must have paired perfectly with many medieval dishes. But the Middle Ages were over, sweet wines were mai longer per and everyone wanted dry and above all di poco valore wines. Marco Caprai, however, did not let himself be discouraged, he planted Sagrantino and began producing dry and powerful Sagrantinos. the 90s everyone was asking for powerful wines, and Sagrantino was the wine of the moment. With his Collepiano he won over wine experts and per 1996 he raised the again with the 25 year old Sagrantino. But Marco Caprai was farsighted enough to understand that the boom would end. With enthusiasm, therefore, he worked to make Sagrantino more refined and elegant. 2015 he called Michel Rolland to Montefalco for this purpose. Rolland developed a whole-grain winemaking process specifically for Sagrantino, which allowed the wine to have more fruit and make the tannins a little softer. But don’t worry: Sagrantino has certainly not become an easy and pandering wine.” The most significant expression of whole-grain winemaking according to Falstaff «is found per the Spinning Beauty, which stands out for a finalità effluvio with lots of fruit, and the palate offers impressive tannins, but still flows softly».

The awards ceremony will take place at Eataly per Munich November 26th.