Abruzzo

Key Grape Variety: Montepulciano

Abruzzo (Abruzzi) is a mountainous Italian wine region located in central Italy along the Adriatic Sea. Abruzzo's rugged terrain, 65% of which is mountainous, help to isolate the region from the winemaking influence of the ancient Romans and Etruscans in Tuscany but the area has had a long history of wine production. In 1968 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo was designated as a DOC. It covers most of Abruzzo ranging from Molise in the south, the Marche in the north and inland against the Apennines Mountains. The wines are at least 85% Montepulciano with Sangiovese permitted, but not required. The Riservas need to be aged a minimum of two years before release, with at least 6 months of that in wood. In 1995 another DOC was created called Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane. This was a carved out subset of the larger zone. The chief differences are that the wines must be at least 90% Montepulciano and the Riservas are aged a minimum of 3 years before release. Unlike other areas of Italy where smaller zones of quality wines were carved from larger ones, this DOC’s wines are not appreciably better (or worse) than the larger zone.
Today more than 42 million cases of wine are produced annually in Abruzzo, making it the fifth most productive region in Italy, but only 21.5% of which is made under the Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) designation. The majority of the region's wine (more than two-thirds) is produced by co-operatives or sold in bulk to negociants in other Italian wine regions in Tuscany, Piedmont and the Veneto for blending. The most notable wine of the region is Montepulciano d'Abruzzo produced by the Montepulciano grape that is distinct from the Sangiovese grape behind the Tuscan wine Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Together with Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is one of the most widely exported DOC wine from Italy, particularly to the United States.
While wine is produced in all four of Abruzzo's provinces, the bulk of the production takes place in the province of Chieti which is the fifth largest producing province in all of Italy. Some of the most highly rated wine from Abruzzo comes from the hillside vineyards in the northern provinces of Pescara and Teramo. In the completely mountainous province of L'Aquila in the west some rosé wine known as Cerasuolo from the Montepulciano grape is produced.