Il Feuduccio Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2010
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2017-
Suckling
James
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Suckling
James
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Spectator
Wine
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Parker
Robert
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Parker
Robert
Instead, Gaetano chose to craft a range of all-Abruzzi wines in celebration of his homeland. In 1996, he secured 67 acres of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (now expanded to 99 acres) and one of Italy’s greatest oenologists: Franco Bernabei. The entire estate, now totalling 129 acres that comprise superb olive groves, is 100% organically cultivated.
All phases of the preparatory work have been supervised not only by Bernabei and Gaetano, but by the latter’s eldest daughter, Laura, and manager Rocco Cipollone.
The sandy-clayey-silty terrain – catered to by ideal microclimate, ideal temperature range, ideal varieties, ideally trained and drained – is, in Bernabei’s words, baciato da Dio,"kissed by God". In 2004, the range was expanded to two white blends (Yare now being flanked by Il Feuduccio Bianco) and four native Montepulciano d’Abruzzos.
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.