Abruzzo: The Great Divide

BY ERIC GUIDO | OCTOBER 06, 2022

Upon landing in Abruzzo and starting my visits with producers, I quickly realized that there is an insurgency taking place. It’s not something that you hear about in marketing materials, consumer or even press tastings. No, you hear it from the producers on the ground as you tour their vineyards and cellars and start to talk about their biggest challenges. In Abruzzo, just like everywhere else, producers are scared about global warming and drought, but what they are really frustrated about is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo itself, simply the DOC, and what it represents. 

Looking out toward Loreto Aprutino and Cugnoli from above the mountain-side town of Corvara.

Imagine you are a producer who works hard in your 5 to 20 hectares, likely all by hand. You put in countless hours, constantly learning, trying to make the best wine possible. You follow the traditions of your region and your family but keep your mind open to new ideas: better, healthier farming practices and innovations in the cellar that will improve quality without removing that wonderful stamp of terroir. When you value your wine, you look at all your hard work and money spent, and then assess the quality that was placed into each bottle. However, once you do all of that, and put a price on your wine that you believe is fair and communicates the importance of what you’ve created, you need to label it Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC and compete with an ocean of mass-produced bulk wine that bears the same name, yet sells in a supermarket for one tenth of the price. 

How do these producers survive? How do they grow? How do they inspire others to follow the road of artisan quality and traditional values? This is the main challenge for Abruzzo’s quality-minded and artisanal producers today. So much so, that more than a few of them are considering leaving the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC altogether. If that happens, it will not only hurt the region as a whole, but also cause mass confusion, as consumers will then need to navigate a minefield of fantasy names and IGTs that may or may not communicate any sense of place. I firmly believe that a reorganization of the region is in order, so that the DOC can keep its greatest producers within the appellation while addressing their needs, even if it is something as simple as the allowance of village or place names, such as Loreto Aprutino, Ofena or Cugnoli, so that these producers have some way to distinguish themselves.

We’ve been down this path before, going back to 2003. At the time, the prevailing belief was that the best reds in Abruzzo hailed from the north, in Teramo, hence the creation of the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG and in Controguerra, where the Apennines reach closest to the Adriatic Sea before spilling over into Marche. Here the elevations are generally higher (the highest permitted vineyards in the area sit at 550 meters), with cooling influence of the mountains, ventilation from the sea and soils that are a mix of clay and limestone. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions (the most obvious being Emidio Pepe, but others include Terraviva and Camillo Montori), many producers in the north have not done an adequate job of conveying the value of their terroir over time. Then we have the subzones of Alto Tirino, Casauria, Teate, Terre dei Peligni and Terre dei Vestini. With the exception of only a handful of producers, how many of the wines are markedly different, and do consumers know, or even care? In fact, the most exciting wines that I’m finding today are instead from the hilly interior of Abruzzo, within the valleys formed by the Gran Sasso and Maiella massifs, where the soils change to glacial, river and seabed deposits created over several centuries. It’s here that we are witnessing a quality revolution that is unparalleled by any other location in the region. It’s also here that new and young producers are struggling to prove the worth of their terroir, while looking up to the likes of Francesco Valentini, Cristiana Tiberio and Fausto Albanesi of Torre dei Beati for inspiration.

Fausto Albanesi in his old-vine pergola vineyards within Loreto Aprutino.