Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC

The Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC covers red wines made from the Montepulciano grape in the region of Abruzzo, in central eastern Italy. Alone it represents over 80% of the total denomination of wines produced in Abruzzo and is among the top three DOC wines produced in Italy. It is a red grape variety, with a medium compact bunch of conical pyramidal shape, often winged, and elongated grape with solid peel.

This is a warm climate, somewhat hot in the summer, ideal for ripening of this variety. The wines are generally medium-bodied, with either steel aging or some light oak aging, have dark color, moderate tannins and zippy acidity.

Producers of Montepulciano wine in Italy generally follow one of 2 winemaking ideologies:

• Oak-aged Montepulciano wines. These wines exhibit deep black-fruit flavors such as boysenberry, blackberry and prune, licorice, and oaky flavors of cocoa, vanilla and mocha. The wines are inky and sometimes have grippy tannin so look for one with about 4 or so years of age.
• Neutral-aged Montepulciano wines. Because Montepulciano has a lot of anthocyanin (color) in the skins, some producers make a lighter style or even a rosato (rosé) by having less contact with the skins during fermentation. The wines come out bursting with red fruit flavors of sour cherry, red plum, cranberry and raspberry jam, and are supported with subtle notes of violet, dried herbs, and often an ash-like earthiness.