Tiberio Pecorino Colline Pescaresi 2005-2018

BY IAN D'AGATA | JANUARY 15, 2020

The twists and turns that characterize the human condition have an uncanny way of making great things happen from unexpected circumstances. So call it luck or destiny, but one of Italy’s best-buy wines was born from a casual stroll in the vineyards, now 20 years ago. That vineyard walk led Abruzzo’s Tiberio winery, now run by second-generation Tiberio siblings Antonio (the viticulturist) and Cristiana (the winemaker), to begin production of a multi-award-winning Pecorino wine. In fact, founder Riccardo Tiberio (Antonio and Cristiana’s father) had bought the property in 1999 because of the extremely old vines surrounding the house that he recognized as authentic Trebbiano Abruzzese. Despite its name Trebbiano Abruzzese (a very high-quality native variety) is not common in Abruzzo anymore, so being able to buy old vines of it is a major coup. After all, it’s the authentic Trebbiano Abruzzese that is one of the secrets behind Valentini’s standout Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (Trebbiano Abruzzese is the variety; Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is the wine), easily one of Italy’s best white wines. Being no fool, Tiberio pounced on the opportunity to buy; but in so doing, he ended up getting an extra, one that he admits he hadn’t planned for, or even seen coming.

Tiberio's beautiful and intensely green Pecorino vineyard

It was Antonio and Cristiana Tiberio who, while strolling beneath the canopies one summer day back in 1999, realized that a bunch of vines and grapes looked completely different from the rest. The two admit they really didn’t know what grape or grapes stood before them; they just thought it was some really funny-looking Trebbiano-variety (beginning with the near-circular leaf, which is nothing like the leaves of most Trebbiano varieties). Only after sending samples to a local nursery did they learn that they also owned vines of Pecorino, something nobody had mentioned at the time of the estate sale. The Tiberio siblings aren’t sure who first decided to plant Pecorino among the Trebbiano Abruzzese vines on the estate, but it was most likely Silvio Tinozzi, who owned the property back in the first part of the 20th century (he was a descendant of the Tinozzi family that owned much of the land around Cugnoli, the town where the Tiberio estate is located).

In Italy, it was once common for farmers to hedge their bets by co-planting different varieties in the same vineyard plot. As different cultivars ripen at different times and are more or less susceptible to different diseases, locals always believed, not unreasonably, that planting more than one grape variety in the same vineyard was a good idea. No matter, Antonio and Cristiana Tiberio were hardly displeased with their discovery, for even then they were aware of the excellent wines made with the Pecorino variety by the two men who had rediscovered it only a few years before, Guido Cocci Grifoni in the Marche (the first person ever to bottle a monovariety Pecorino wine) and Luigi Cataldi Madonna in Abruzzo (the first person ever to bottle a monovariety Pecorino wine that sported the cultivar’s name on the label). As luck would have it, the Tiberio siblings were very good friends with Cataldi Madonna, whose first Pecorino wine dates back to the 1996 vintage and who undoubtedly did more for Pecorino’s surge to fame in Abruzzo than anyone else. Cristiana Tiberio credits Cataldi Madonna for having been her mentor in those early years (and to Cataldi Madonna’s credit, other Abruzzo wine producers have told me exactly the same thing over the years). “Very little was known about Pecorino back then, either the grape or the wines. Written information was practically nonexistent, and so the only way I could learn was by hanging out at Cataldi Madonna’s estate, observing and listening to him.” Over time, Tiberio developed her own winemaking style with the Pecorino variety. Today, her wine, Cataldi Madonna’s old-vines Frontone bottling and Cocci Grifoni’s Colle Vecchio bottling are, by a huge margin, the three best Pecorino wines made in Italy.