Our Imports Manager Frank just loves a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. His reasoning is that the quality to dollar ratio is simply off the charts, representing value from entry all the way to the top (which is never even close in price to the wines of the north). It’s versatile too, with ripe fruit flavours and soft tannins partnering impenetrable inky colour – an almost contradictory balance of power and mellowness that seems to go with an inexhaustible range of recipes and occasions.
Did you know that Abruzzo is dubbed by some as the greenest region in Europe? Almost half the territory is covered in national park, beautiful landscapes over the flatter coastal areas near the Adriatic to the east and then the Apennine
Mountain range and the Maiella massif to the west. The region is also home to Corno Grande, one of Italy’s highest peaks at 2912m, and Europe’s most southerly glacier. It’s generally a warm area, noted for its very high number of sunshine hours but importantly, it also has a distinct diurnal shift caused by the mountains and sea, ensuring there is plenty of potential for quality wines.
Vineyards lie across the entire region and its multitudinous terroirs, producing wines as varied in style and flavour as the geography. There are just seven DOCs and two DOCG in Abruzzo, and then several IGT designations across the four provinces of L’Aquila, Teramo, Pescara, and Chieti. The grapes are mainly natives to the region, finding natural cohesion with the climate. The main grape is Montepulciano, and whites Trebbiano and Pecorino follow for quantity, the latter of which is only grown in Abruzzo and nearby Marche. There are many other varieties in the ground, from Sangiovese to Merlot and Chardonnay, and then there’s the very rare Cococciola as mentioned above from Orefice. Although it’s the fifth most prolific winegrowing area in Italy (after regions like Veneto and Tuscany), many of the producers of Abruzzo work at a small scale. Cooperatives are vital here, bringing together fruit from hundreds of family farms and ensuring quality is maintained through life-long contracts and a vibrant supply and demand exchange.
The key factor binding the wines is generosity. These are all sun-filled wines big in flavour and personality, whether
you’re talking about the voluptuous Montes or the perfumed Pecorinos. But the wine itself is not the only reason we
love to work with the products of Abruzzo – it’s also about the people. There’s a saying attributed to the Abruzzese that
we mentioned earlier: They have their head in the clouds and their feet in the sea. It’s meaning can be shared between
a description of their landscape and the effect this place has on the culture. Anyone with a friend from Abruzzo will
know they’re hardworking but fun loving, all-round good humans just waiting to turn on some great hospitality.
Our wines from Abruzzo include several Montepulcianos, from our ‘vino di battaglia’ foot-soldier, Pasqua Capitolo and
the pure and juicy Fantini DOC, through to the plush northerly-sourced Casale Vecchio which contrasts completely with
the earthy/savoury mid-zone Orefice example. Then there’s the Chieti-sourced Fantini Sangiovese and gold-bottled
Don Camillo Sangiovese Cabernet. Our premium-end Abruzzo wines are bold, deep and profound reds – there’s
Orefice’s ripe and sweet-fruited Monte/Sangio/Merlot blend the ‘People of Abruzzo’; then the granddaddy – Fantini’s
Cinque Autoctoni Edizione 21, a concentrated red blend of five native grapes grown in Abruzzo and neighbouring
Puglia. If you want to explore the rare white varieties, we have the fragrant and luscious Calalenta Pecorino and the
crisp/mineral Orefice Cococciola. We also have a deeply aromatic Merlot Rosé from Fantini Calalenta.
