La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017

  • 92 James
    Suckling
  • 90 Jeb
    Dunnuck
3.8 Very Good (146)
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La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017  Front Bottle Shot
La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017  Front Bottle Shot La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017  Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2017

Size
750ML

Your Rating

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

La Valentina Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is an excellent example of the Abruzzo region’s most characteristic wine—a hearty red wine made from 100% Montepulciano grapes. This is the red entry in La Valentina’s Classica line, which showcases the traditional wines of Abruzzo at their best.

Professional Ratings

  • 92

    Bright blackberries and blueberries are at the forefront on the nose. Medium-bodied with a persistent line of confident acidity and plenty of playful citrus and chestnut undertones. 

  • 90
    The 2017 Montepulciano D’Abruzzo is a smoking value. Complex notes of dried cherries, peppery herbs, cedarwood, and a touch of loamy earth all emerge from the glass, and it's medium-bodied, with a wonderful sweetness of fruit, light tannins, and great balance. I don't expect it to make old bones, but it's a terrific drink today. Enjoy bottles over the coming couple of years.

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La Valentina

Fattoria La Valentina

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Fattoria La Valentina, Italy
Fattoria La Valentina La Valentina Estate Winery Image

Fattoria La Valentina was born on the hills overlooking Spoltore, which is near Pescara in Central Italy, in 1990. The owners, Sabatino, Roberto and Andrea Di Properzio, have been managing the winery since their first vintage in1994.

After the first few years spent studying the Santa Teresa vineyard, their continuous efforts to keep improving quality and to achieve recognition for the high-quality D.O.C. wines from the Abruzzo region have become the principal goals in the company philosophy.

It all starts with the land, and in addition to vineyards close to the winery, La Valentina has acquired several vineyard sites that are located at higher elevations in the foothills of the Apennines, near a national park in pristine conditions. In all their vineyards, the Di Properzios have made a strong commitment to sustainability—avoiding the use of artificial or chemical products, ensuring maximum biodiversity, and relying on minimal intervention in the land’s natural processes. To this end, all the estate vineyards have been certified organic since 2016. 

Rather than turning to international grape varieties or varieties that are more at home in other regions, the Di Properzio brothers remain true to the traditional varieties associated with Abruzzo: Montepulciano and Trebbiano Abruzzese, along with a time-honored but almost forgotten variety, Pecorino. The shift in focus is not in the grapes but in the way they are grown and vinified.

La Valentina’s winemaking is managed by consulting enologist Luca D’Attoma, who joined the winery team in 1998. The winery’s philosophy is to intervene as little as possible in the natural wine growing processes, adhering to the concept that high-quality wine “has the mark of the vine on its grapes.”

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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.

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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.

CHMVLN3601017_2017 Item# 555351

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