Abruzzo

In the wine world Abruzzo means Montepulciano, the grape, not the Tuscan town: it covers 57 per cent of the vineyards, with Trebbiano at 29 per cent. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the red, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo the deep rosé made from the same grape, and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo the white, alongside native whites such as Pecorino, Passerina and Cococciola. The region had 32,654 hectares of vines in 2022, the year it made more than 3.1 million hectolitres, possibly its largest harvest ever; in 2023 weather and downy mildew cut that to barely 1.1 million. About 58 per cent of the wine is red, and nearly a third is bottled under a DOC or DOCG.

Abruzzo has three DOCGs, all of them hill country for Montepulciano: Colline Teramane in the north around Teramo, Casauria in the Pescara valley, and Terre Tollesi, or Tullum, a single commune in the province of Chieti.