Winemaker Notes
Unfined and unfiltered to preserve all its fleshy fruit flavors, this wine has a dark inky color and intense aromas of ripe blackberry, cherry and herbs, followed by licorice, black pepper and smoke. Generous yet pure on the palate with ripe, round tannins, excellent structure and delicate acidity. Recommended with rich pastas, game, sausages, stews and grilled meats. The perfect barbecue wine. A great value!
"Monti's 2004 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is an awesome glass of wine. This plump, juicy, cask-aged Montepulciano is loaded with jammy dark cherries, spices and underbrush. It should offer its finest drinking, not to mention a lot of pleasure, over the next few years. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2009.
This small family-run estate in Abruzzo makes wines loaded with character. Oenologist Riccardo Cotarella has succeeded in giving the wines a little more polish without robbing the wines of their distinctive personalities. These unfiltered wines strike a very beautiful balance between traditional and modern styles."
-Wine Advocate
Professional Ratings
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.