2020 Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo

I feel as if watching the Tiberio family grow along with their wines has been a priceless experience. It’s been about eight years since I began tasting and talking with Cristiana Tiberio. In that time, I’ve experienced verticals of their Trebbiano, Pecorino (yes, I said Pecorino) and Trebbiano Abruzzese Fonte Canale, all with eye-opening results that have provided me with paradigm shifts regarding how these varieties can age. It’s funny to think that the one vertical I’ve yet to experience is the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – yet that just goes to show the faith that this family has in their whites. That said, have no fear about this estate’s Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, because over the years, Cristiana Tiberio has been experimenting with different parcels and biotypes in her vineyards, which first resulted in the 2014 Colle Vota (https://vinous.com/articles/cellar-favorite-2014-tiberio-montepulciano-d-abruzzo-colle-vota-oct-2020), and now also in the inaugural release of the 2017 Archivio. Through it all, Tiberio’s all-stainless-steel-refined Montepulciano d’Abruzzo seems to just keep getting better. These conversations and tastings always bring surprises as well, one being how the Tiberios’ ability to cull a bit of magic from more difficult vintages. For instance, there’s selecting 2017 to be the first release of Archivio, which is the first wine to see any wood refinement in the winery (30% of the juice is done in barrique), and from a vintage that was incredibly difficult and warm – yet it yielded an amazingly harmonious wine. Another surprise was how they turned the 40% loss of fruit in 2019 into one of the most intense and packed-full-of-potential expressions of the house Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (also with a Colle Vota and Archivio in the works). As for Fonte Canale, it remains one of the best white wines being made in Italy today, and the 2018 is a vintage that should not be missed. Frankly stated, in a region that is often backward, still enamored with the overuse of wood, pushing ripeness levels of their Pecorino into the tropical zone, and releasing more substandard Trebbiano than you can keep track of, Tiberio is like a beacon. They are easily one of the top three producers in the region.