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Giuseppe Masci was a sharecropper.
When opportunity arose, he changed careers. But he wouldn’t forget where he came from, returning years later to buy land and start Valle Martello, one of six wines featured during a Zoom tasting of Montepulciano wines from Abruzzo, Italy.
It’s the kind of story with a humble beginning and successful ending that Davide Acerra from the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Consortium wanted to tell. The nonprofit organization was started in 2002 to promote the wines of Abruzzo. It has represented about 70% of producers in the area.
“Everyone is working to change the perception of consumers,” said Acerra, who was joined by Susannah Gold, an Italian wine ambassador. “Particularly for Montepulciano. The new generation of producers has pushed for better, higher quality wines.
“The market has increased the perception of our wines, as well,” he said. “The wines have always been good, the problem has been communication. And there is a young group of producers working on getting that message out now.”
Masci owns two hilltop vineyards that face each other, and made Prima Terra 2015 ($28), “the first land,” an homage to his first-purchased property.
It was a warm summer in 2015, and a stress-free growing season led to low yields, but the wine has since aged to reveal toasty almond, black cherry and vanilla flavors.
Gold said Abruzzo, located on the Adriatic coast in central, southeast Italy, is known as “the green region of Europe.” Half the land is occupied by national parks filled with numerous lakes, rivers, mountains and waterfalls. There’s an incredible amount of biodiversity, and when it comes to wine, Abruzzo’s signature red: Montepulciano.
“There are a lot of rivers in Abruzzo,” Gold said. “I think of it like a comb, and the comb has all these different valleys that are the spokes of the comb.”
With Montepulciano, winemakers don’t have to work hard for extraction, as the fruit has natural color and tannin. While it has gained a reputation as an easy-drinking pizza wine, during the tasting, Gold showcased a few wines with potential to age well.
“Montepulciano is the second most widely grown grape throughout central Italy,” Gold said. “It is a late ripening grape that adapts to many soil types, but its sweet spot is clay.”
Located in the southernmost province in Abruzzo, Cirelli Farms Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo 2018 ($32) was aged in 800-liter amphora fitted with steel lid tops. It spends a year in the amphora and a year in bottle prior to its release.
“The amphora limits the impact of oxygen on the wine and shows primary fruit flavors and aromas,” Gold said.
Proximity to the Adriatic showed its influence on the nose with cardamom, sandalwood, mushroom and forest floor aromas that unwound into flavors of plum and black cherry.
A rainy September normally might be the bane of a vintage, but in 2018, it offered some relief from a hot spring and summer and stretched harvest all the way into November.
Tenuta I Fauri “Ottobre Rosso” 2018 ($25) was a lighter red color in the glass. It was very approachable and fruit-forward. There were raspberry flavors and a silky texture. Stylistically, it was reminiscent of a medium-bodied grenache.
Grown in vineyards with clay soils, the wine was lighter in color, with raspberry flavors, a silky mouthfeel and a spicy oak on the nose.
There’s a three-part act in the cellar, as fermentation takes place in stainless steel, is transferred to cement tanks, and finally spends time in wood barrels. Gold said this process allows micro oxygenation to occur, and the wood finish adds a “rounder mouthfeel” and “helps to stabilize color.”
Grown in hilly vineyards, where each row could have a varying aspect ratio to the sun and be subjected to sudden temperature shifts, Casal Thaulero “Orsetto Oro” 2017 ($18) had a dense core of baking spice, a red fruit array and plush tannins. The name translates to “golden bear.”
Named as an ode to a long-gone era in agriculture Fattoria La Valentina “Spelt” 2017 ($16.99) translates as “wheat,” which once was grown there in abundance. Vineyards are grown at 820 feet and have a medium-clay soil, some sand and limestone.
It was founded in 1990, and vegetables are planted between the rows, with fava beans used as a cover crop to add nitrogen to the soil. There were cardamom and pine needle on the nose, with fig, prune, pine and mushroom flavors.
The winery recycles its water and has focused on renewable energy usage in the cellar.
In 2017, Fattoria La Valentina experienced a spring frost. An abnormally hot spring and summer led to forest fires, as Italy started to see climate change effects that have plagued California harvests for years. Harvest came earlier than usual and featured some well-timed rains that Gold said “evened things out.”
Displaced by World War II, Ciavolich returned as a functioning winery in the 1960s. It was built in 1853, and today Kiara Ciavolich runs the winery.
An old wine press is still used in the cellar, and the fruit is fermented in concrete tanks that are shaped like an egg, without temperature control, a rarity in a modern wine cellar.
Each bottle is individually numbered, and the winery turns out 3,000 per year. There was a feral kind of flavor in the wine, a wild game and boysenberry combination.
Revisited later in the day, Ciavolich “Fosso Cancelli” 2018 ($32) continued to evolve and become more enjoyable. It’s one that could be enjoyed today or be cellared for a few years.
The diversity of flavors and styles of Montepulciano combines with affordable prices. Now’s the time to tell the story of Abruzzo’s wineries and winemakers.
• James Nokes has been tasting, touring and collecting in the wine world for several years. Email him at jamesnokes25@yahoo.com.