Winemaker Notes
Deep, violet shaded ruby red. Good density, typical and elegant nose, with clean and complex fruit, lightly enriched by spicy hints coming from the old vineyard and from the not overwhelming aging in wood. The pulpy body gives the wine a good smoothness, well balanced by the fine tannins, which, in combination with the natural minerality and the well measured acidity, contribute to an elegant, long finish.
Perfect paired to simple meet dishes of the abruzzese tradition, such as grilled lamb, pork “cif e ciaf”, lamb “coratella”, arrosticini.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is wonderfully fresh and fruit-forward. A balance of dusty rose and foreign spices complements dried strawberries. It sweeps across the palate, lifted yet racy in style, with silken textures and polished wild berry fruits that swirl throughout. The 2021 leaves a web of fine-grained tannins, showing wonderful harmony while tapering off with a hint of salted licorice.
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.