Surprise is an underrated element in enjoying wine. Our sense experience of the world is heavily edited by our expectations, which is both good and necessary, lest we spend all our time marveling at the shapes of clouds. This applies to wine too; when we see a bottle of red wine from Umbria, experience tells us to expect a tar-black wine full of wrought iron tannins and stern black fruit. Angelo Fongoli makes a very different wine with his biodynamically farmed Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes from vineyards in Montefalco. This wine breaks through that veil of expectation, and thus shines just a bit brighter in the glass. It tastes just a bit sharper of black pepper, crunchy red cherries, dewey cranberries and strawberries. There are delicate notes of shiitake mushroom broth and sun-tried tomato leaf that resonate because they are so unexpected. The palate registers at 11.5% alcohol, and offers more fresh picked red berries, dusty earth, dried herbs, and a gentle squeeze of tannin – this is still Umbria, after all – on the finish. This is a perfect wine for a fresh Margarita Pizza, but it will serve well for almost any Italian dish from Sicily to Piedmont.