(MN) - In the 1960s, the sagrantino grape was disappearing from the hillsides around the town of Montefalco, in Italy's Umbria region. Considered indigenous to the area, sagrantino, a sturdy red grape, had been cultivated at least since the Middle Ages. The monks grew it to make a sweet sacramental wine from the dried grapes.

But sagrantino had been written off by many as just too austere and tannic for table wine. Luckily, a few vintners set about to revive the grape. Take Marco Caprai, for example. His father, Arnaldo Caprai, was in the textile business and bought land near Montefalco in 1971, planting a few acres of grapes. Marco joined his father in 1987. At the time, there were fewer than 125 acres of sagrantino; the Caprais had about 17. Marco, working with the University of Milan, started researching the best practices for growing sagrantino. (He says he approached the university in nearby Perugia but was told that sagrantino wasn't worth the investment.)

"The big step was 1995," Marco Caprai says, when the winery's 1993 Montefalco Sagrantino was awarded the top rating from Italy's influential Gambero Rosso wine magazine and annual guide. There was an explosion of investment in the Montefalco area.

Now, more than 2,400 acres of sagrantino are planted in the area, and most of the grapes go into dry wines. Many new wineries have been established. One example is Tenuta Bellafonte, founded in 2007 by Peter Heilbron, who was from Milan. He says he chose the area because he and his wife loved Umbria and saw the potential of sagrantino.