Winemaker Notes
Madia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is ruby red in color, with purplish glints. The clean nose profile shows berry fruit scents and jam aromas, such as blackberries and raspberries, with hints of violet and bitter licorices. The wine is supple, warm, well-balanced, firm and pleasantly long-lasting.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A flinty lift with crushed stones, graphite and new leather on top of the black cherries and a hint of mussels. Juicy, medium-bodied palate, delivering crunchy red berries. A fresh and drinkable expression of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, rounded by fine, gritty tannins.
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Wine Spectator
Lavish notes of licorice, toast, vanilla and spices accent the flavors of boysenberry coulis, Mediterranean macchia, mocha and plum sauce in this well-oaked red, which shows bright acidity. Chewy tannins emerge on the finish. Drink now through 2029. 4,000 cases made, 2,800 cases imported.
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.