Questo vino
Vineyard and terroir
This selection is drawn from the estate’s oldest Montepulciano plots among 17 hectares surrounding the cellar in Torano Nuovo. Some parcels exceed 50 years of age and preserve genetically diverse material propagated by field grafting and massal selection.
The vineyards receive sunlight across a broad solar arc, with pronounced day-to-night temperature differences and constant wind. Maritime influence meets cold currents from the Gran Sasso, while clay and limestone soils permit deep rooting. The pergola canopy shades the fruit, encouraging slow ripening and finer tannins. Detailed study of the two oldest parcels has identified blue-grey Calabrian marl and a mosaic of compact calcareous clay, limestone-sand veins, pebbles and softer sands.
No chemical products are used. Biodynamic preparations, cover crops and spontaneous vegetation encourage living soils and indigenous yeast diversity.
Grapes
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
Vinification
The grapes are harvested and selected exclusively by hand. Berries are manually destemmed over a wooden vat: two people move the bunches across a mesh so that nearly intact berries fall through while unbroken stems remain above. This preserves yeasts on the skins and limits extraction of bitter stem tannins. Fermentation begins spontaneously, without selected yeasts or added enzymes, with concrete serving as the neutral cellar vessel. In 2022, gravity unloading was incorporated into the traditional hand-destemming process to retain greater berry integrity.
Ageing
Wine from the oldest plots is placed in the ageing cellar after vinification and receives its first release after four years. Ageing continues in bottle without filtration, and vintages may be retained until they reach their desired expression. Bottles more than 20 years old are individually opened, hand-decanted to remove sediment, checked, topped up from another bottle of the same vintage and recorked.
Tasting profile
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo combines immediate fruit expression with substantial capacity for bottle ageing. Pergola shade supports gradual ripening and refined skin tannins. Separate vinification of the two oldest neighbouring parcels has revealed contrasting expressions: one gives luminous fruit and fine-grained tannins, while the other is darker and broader, with persistent saline depth.
Vintage notes
The Selezione Vecchie Vigne release schedule differs by market because the old-vine wines are retained for ageing. The shared release document records Montepulciano vintages from 2010 through 2017 for the 2018–2020 release cycles.
In 2024, healthy fruit followed a warm, windy and dry season. Rain between the white- and red-grape harvests allowed Montepulciano to complete phenolic ripening; the overall harvest concluded on 3 October. Cool, energetic fermentations extended red-wine macerations by two days.
The 2023 vintage yielded only about 25% of a normal estate crop after heavy spring rain and an August hailstorm. In 2022, Montepulciano harvest began on 22 September following late-July rain that supported the final phase of phenolic maturity.
