Winemaker Notes
Brilliant ruby red with violet tinges. Intense aromas and flavors, refined and elegant, with hints of sour red cherry, blueberry, violet and flint. Smooth tannins, full-bodied and a long fresh finish.
Try with tomato and/or meat pasta dishes, poultry and wildfowl, red meats, venison and cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Spicy to the core, the 2022 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wafts up with a blend of crushed cherries and wild berries, dusty violets, lavender and traces of incense. This is elegant in feel with silken textures and rich red and blue fruits. A crisp mineral sensation forms toward the close. The 2022 leaves the palate drenched in primary concentration, finishing with edgy tannins offset by a spike of residual acidity. Frankly, it's incredible that this is Tiberio's entry-level red, as the 2022 displays impressive depth and complexity.
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.