Farnese Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Castellovecchio 2000
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Winemaker Notes
AROMA: bright land an intense berry fruit.
FLAVOR: well balanced, with soft tannins.
AGING: drinks well when young, but will improve with several years of bottle aging.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS: with hearty pastas, meat and game, and full-flavored cheese.
ALCOHOL: 12% by volume
Fantini by Farnese wines are a reflection of the colors of Abruzzo, painting wonderful landscapes of taste and living for the love of the endless vineyards protected by Mount Majella’s motherly roundness. One can see them sliding down from the hills to the sea, seeking an optimum exposure and enjoying an excellent microclimate that the whole of Europe envies us. This is the reason why the fruits of this land grow so well and age even better. The most advanced technology is absolutely necessary to enable the features of their grapes to be transferred intact to the bottle. Maniacal attitudes while working in the vineyards are pointless if we are unable to maintain certain standards when bottling. At Farnese they believe we cannot produce a great wine without constant supervision on behalf of expert winemakers which is the reason why in each vintage 6 successful winemakers live in perfect harmony with the grapes that arrive at the winery and are turned into great wines.
Montepulciano is the second most planted red variety in Italy after Sangiovese, though it is achieves its highest potential in the region of Abruzzo. Consistently enticing and enjoyable, Montepulciano enjoys great popularity throughout central and southern Italy as well. A tiny bit grows with success in California, Argentina and Australia. Somm Secret—Montepulciano is also the name of a village in Tuscany where, confusingly, they don’t grow the Montepulciano grape at all! Sangiovese shines in yet another Tuscan village, here making the reputable wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
A warm, Mediterranean vine-growing paradise, in Abruzzo, the distance from mountains to seaside is relatively short. The Apenniness, which run through the center of Italy, rise up on its western side while the Adriatic Sea defines its eastern border.
Wine composition tends to two varieties: Abruzzo’s red grape, Montepulciano and its white, Trebbiano. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo can come in a quaffable, rustic and fruity style that generally drinks best young. It is also capable of making a more serious style, where oak aging tames its purely wild fruit.
Trebbiano in Abruzzo also comes in a couple of varieties. Trebbiano Toscana makes a simple and fruity white. However when meticulously tended, the specific Trebbiano d’Abruzzo-based white wines can be complex and long-lived.
In the region’s efforts to focus on better sites and lower yields, vine acreage has decreased in recent years while quality has increased.