Winemaker Notes
San Calisto is Valle Reale's flagship wine. This muscular yet refined wine is made from 100% Montepulciano grown in the San Calisto parcel, the oldest plot in the Valle Reale estate. Located within one of Italy's most beautiful national parks, and surrounded by the Gran Sasso mountain range. This unique vineyard benefits from the high elevation, a wide diurnal temperature range, lots of cool, breezy ventilation and limestone rich soils.
Deep, ruby-red in color, San Calisto offers layered aromas of ripe blackberries and crushed black cherries, followed by spicy notes of cassis, leather and dried herbs. Its excellent structure is perfectly complimented by a silky, rich mouthfeel and a long, persistent finish. San Calisto is excellent with sharp cheeses, barbecued ribs, lamb, filet mignon or steak au poivre.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The top of the line 2007 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo San Calisto flows across the palate with layers of blue and black fruit. Mineral notes appear later, adding balance and proportion as the wine builds towards its explosive, elegant finish. The San Calisto spent 18 months in new French oak, all of which has been absorbed with no issues whatsoever. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022.
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.