The Abruzzo Wine Experience
Abruzzo is a wine region in Southern Italy producing delicious white and red wine. along with the classic Cerasuelo, a rosé style wine made from the Montepulciano grape.
When grown in the best sites and matured in oak, the red Montepulciano grape can take on the gravitas of a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
The region’s better known white grape, Pecorino, is typically easy drinking, crisp, and refreshing. But I found examples of intensely concentrated Pecorino that make for a great gastronomic wine.
Abruzzo Highlights
The highlight of the Abruzzo Wine Experience was the Grand Wine Tasting at the Palazzo D’Avalos and the “Words of Wine Awards.” This was a nearly all-day event, with journalists arriving before 10am for a sit-down, sommelier-served tasting.
The Palace
After a delicious lunch in the palace courtyard, producers arrived to talk about their wines at individual tables in a self-serve style walk-around tasting.
Abruzzo Wines
The extolled red wine of the region, made from the Montepulciano grape, is such a classic it’s not affected by trends. But during this visit, it introduced me to the Villamagna DOC region, established in 2011.
The band of Villamagna producers offered a walk-around tasting of their wines and seemed especially eager to tell wine journalists all about their reasons for creating their own appellation and the ten-year struggle to make it happen.
VillaMagna DOC
During the Villamagna tasting, the concentrated fruit, elegance, and velvet tannins of almost all the wines struck me. They each had their own individual expression of aroma and flavor, but the unwavering uniform high quality is something rare to experience within an appellation.
One can only attribute it to the strict quality standards the Villamagna producers established and enforce within their circle.
Cerasuolo
The word means “cherry” in Italian. Though most Americans would simply refer to it as a rosé wine, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo represents such a classic, time-honored style intrinsic to Abruzzo that the Masters of Wine serves it blind to students taking their exam.
The Cerasuolo wines traditionally have a deep, garnet color, as they are made from the strongly colored Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grape.
But during my visit, I saw that more producers are making them in a lighter, paler color to resemble Provence rosé.
White Wine
Pecorino and Passerina are two white grape varieties that have long been associated with the Abruzzo (and neighboring Marche) region. But I discovered many producers are taking measures to produce a higher quality of Pecorino specifically, planting the grapes on more suitable soil and taking more quality-focused measures in the vinification process.
Interestingly, one cooperative exports it’s lower priced entry-level Pecorino, and keeps the “good stuff” for consumers in the local market.
Sparkling Cococciolo
Cococciolo is a white grape native to Abruzzo, rarely tasted outside of the region. But the examples of cococciolo, when made as a sparkling wine were so refreshing it was easy to desire another glass. It would be great for producers to consider this for the export market, especially in aluminum cans.
In Conclusion
It was great to meet with producers and compare styles of the same grape varieties. Very grateful the consortium included a variety of producer visits (cooperative, family wineries, larger wineries) and also castles. I loved the half-day visit of the San Giovanni in Venere Abbey and the surrounding small town around it.
Below are wineries visited
