Abruzzo and Molise Coming of Age

BY IAN D’AGATA | AUGUST 23, 2016

Once widely viewed as the source of nothing more than hearty red wines and inexpensive, inoffensive whites, Abruzzo and Molise are on the upswing. The wine scene in Abruzzo, long a sleeping giant of Italian wine, is especially exciting today.

Even in Italy the regions of Abruzzo and Molise are often lumped together, but in fact they differ in many aspects, with viticulture being just one example. Generalizing broadly, in Abruzzo there are three main native grapes (Montepulciano, Trebbiano Abruzzese and Pecorino) and three fundamental denominazioni (Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo and Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo), while in Molise international varieties play a much more important role—typical of virtually every wine region in which quality viticulture and winemaking have become a staple only in the last 100 years or so. Therefore, varietally labelled Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc wines are more commonly associated with Molise than Abruzzo. In fact, the two most typical native grape varieties of Molise, the still relatively unknown Cococciola (a white grape) and the extremely interesting and potentially very high-quality Tintilia (a red), have only started being the object of study and serious wines in the last 10 to 20 years.

A typical tendone Abruzzese canopy

Entering the 21st Century