Di Filippo Grechetto di Todi 2025
£13.45
The wine
A rounded, tangy Grechetto with fruity, spicy notes complemented by hints of apricot and sage, through to a pleasant almond note on the finish. Organic and biodynamic, from an estate where geese patrol the vineyard rows.
Grechetto is Umbria's principal white grape and gives a nutty, structured wine quite unlike the neutral Trebbiano that dominates central Italy. Grechetto di Todi is a distinct clone, now known to be a separate variety, and the appellation recognises it. Farmed biodynamically, with geese and sheep working the rows.
The producer
Di Filippo
View all Di Filippo winesDi Filippo farm at Cannara in Umbria, between Assisi and Montefalco, and have been organic since 1994 and biodynamic since 2009. The family have grown grapes here since the 1930s.
The estate is best known for two things beyond the wine. Geese are kept among the vines to control weeds and insects, and a flock of sheep grazes the rows through winter, which removes the need for herbicides and much of the need for machinery. It sounds like a gimmick and is not: the practice is old, and the reduction in soil compaction is measurable.
Umbria is landlocked, green and hilly, and its grapes are its own. Grechetto is the region's principal white and gives a nutty, structured wine quite unlike Trebbiano; Trebbiano Spoletino, from around Spoleto, is unrelated to ordinary Trebbiano despite the name and is far more interesting, with real acidity and the capacity to age.
