Winemaker Notes
Tiberio Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is a bright pinkish-red color. Fresh aromas and flavors of red cherry and small red berries. Lovely acid-fruit balance with a bright, crisp, clean floral finish.
Pair with pizza, pasts, fish dishes with sauce, cheese, meat.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
A translucent ruby in color, the 2023 Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo is lifted and finessed with a gorgeous bouquet of rose petals, cedar shavings, wild blueberries and crushed stones. This washes across the palate with ease, juicy and vividly fresh, as ripe wild berry fruits cascade across a core of tactile minerals. Hints of savory spice emerge toward the close. It leaves a pleasantly bitter tinge to linger on, tapering off with hints of sour cranberry and violet inner florals. I love the crunchy nature and filigree feel of the 2023.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
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.