Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red with inky purple stripes. The bouquet reveals flavors of dark plum, blackberry nectar and aromatic herbs, complicated by coffee and cocoa. At once dense but fresh, with noble and powerful tannins, finishes long and clean, with lovely lingering violet perfume. The final is long and clean with mineral notes exalting its vivacity, power and clearness.
Pair with braised and cooked meat, game bird, wild boar and long aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This riserva shows dense aromas and flavors of brandy- soaked black cherries, clove, cinnamon and tobacco. It’s firm in feel, with smooth, polished tannins and tense acidity to lend a solid structure for the rich berry and heady spice flavors to spread out.
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.