Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Vinous
The 2021 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Vecchie Vigne Branella is spicy and floral, with a smoky burst of grilled herbs and autumnal spice complementing dried black cherries. This is elegant and seamlessly silky, with depths of dark red and blue fruits that slowly saturate. All is underscored by saline minerals as a coating of grippy tannins emerges toward the close. It finishes with staining length and concentration, leaving bitter blackberries and violet inner florals to resonate on. The 2021 will be released in 2025. It's shaping up to be an epic and powerful rendition of Pepe's Vigne Branella
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.
This significant Tuscan village—not to be confused with the red grape of the same name widely grown in Abruzzo and the Marche regions—was home to one of the first four Italian DOCGs granted in 1980.
Based on the Sangiovese grape (here called Prugnolo Gentile), the village’s prized wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ranks stylistically in between Chianti Classico, for its finesse, and Brunello di Montalcino for its power. With a deep ruby color, heavy concentration and a firm structure given by the village's heavy, cool clay soils, most Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will demand some bottle age.