Tag Archives: Abruzzo

April 1, 2015 · 11:46 am

Cantina Frentana – Vinitaly 2015

Frentano Trebbiano 2014
Touch of bottle shock, bright light and fresh, solid as expected.

Cococciolo 2014
A bit of bite on the front, very very crunchy bitter.

Organic Trebbiano 2014
Nice, a lot fuller and more textured on the palate, more personality.

Organic Pecorino 2014
Very interesting nose, quite ripe fruit sweet, almost sherbety, candied fresh bananas, very compelling lots of personality.

Terre Valse Montepulciano 2013
Earthier more savoury notes on the nose, nice tight robust tannins, quite fresh and round, full in the mouth.

Organic Montepulciano 2013
Bright and intense, vibrant yet crunchy, nice depth and length, good concentration and a bit of fruit sweetness.

Costa del Mulino Montepulciano 2012
A touch more closed on the nose, but still very vibrant and fresh, juicy jumping fruit sweetness. Wowsers lots going on. Good texture too.

Rubesto Montepulciano Riserva 2011
Intense yet subdued, showing some oaky tones over the top of the fruit, but not aggressive, just slightly dulling the fruit for my palate.

Panarda Montepulciano Riserva 2010
Oak definitely sitting over everything in this wine, tight tight tannins from the grape but more so the oak. More international style, doesn’t mean we won’t sell it.

Cantina Frentana Sales Manager Felice Di Biase with importer into Australia Gianmarco Balestrini

Cantina Frentana Sales Manager Felice Di Biase (right) with importer into Australia Gianmarco Balestrini

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April 4, 2013 · 10:48 pm

Masciarelli – 30/04/2012

Castello di Semivicoli Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2008
Combined complex seashell saltiness and texture with some elegant stone fruit depth and viscosity.

Villa Gemma Cerasuolo 2011
A traditional way of producing montepulciano, whereby the must is cold soaked for about 24 hours then pressed off, which gives a dark rose colour to the wine. Showed candied fruit sweetness of strawberries, cherries and cream, plenty of lively acidity and textured tannins, but was again quite simple.

Marina Cvetic Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2009
The fruit was astonishingly good and showed great authenticity, but it was drenched in toasty sweet oak tannins.

Iskra Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2004
Had the benefit of several more years of bottle age, but couldn’t escape the overuse of oak, which in my opinion won’t help the wine improve in the cellar.

Villa Gemma Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2005
After 30+ days of maceration on skins spends the next four years in a variety of old and new oak treatments. The over maceration gave the aromatics a volatile acidity nature, and the concentration of fruit combining with the oak makes it a very complex, mature and intense wine, that will probably benefit with more age.

A box of Masciarelli wine

A box of Masciarelli wine

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April 4, 2013 · 10:35 pm

Tenuta Torre Raone – 30/04/2012

Lucanto Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2010
Expressed a clean juicy floral and fruit sweet nose with some honey and citrus notes. On the palate it maintained an approachable freshness of fruit, but also had plenty of balance, texture and minerality.

Raone Bianco 2010
A blend of pecorino, pinot grigio, and a variety called incrocio manzoni, a cross of riesling and pinot bianco from Friuli. The fruit notes for this wine were in the zesty citrus realm of oranges and lime, coupling with some floral minerality and depth, and whilst very vibrant and crisp had little more to offer than a good aromatic white wine.

Pecorino Colline Pescaresi 2009
Showed lovely grapefruit and honeysuckle notes on the nose, introducing subtle quince, grass and ripe stone fruit notes on the palate, with lots of depth, texture and warmth.

Raone Bianco 2008
Made entirely from incrozio manzoni. The 2008 was made like a white burgundy, highlighting the richness, weight and depth of the wine with plenty of toasty oxidative malolactic elements.

Lucanto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2010
Very aromatic and intense with black olives, red currants, dried fowl and some rustic notes, great balance and weight with approachability and texture.

San Zopito Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2007
Showed the benefit old vines have on the variety and site, but unfortunately the excessive amount of oak manipulation gave the wine too much sweet vanilla and caramel, and gave the wine too much breadth of tannins and fruit.

Steep trebbiano vineyards at Torre Raone

Steep trebbiano vineyards at Torre Raone

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April 3, 2013 · 8:36 pm

Barone di Valforte – 1/05/2012

Pecorino 2011
Recently bottled, and had a vibrant fresh citrus floral and melon aroma, whilst on the palate showed good concentration, texture, volume and balance, expressing very subtle fruit complexity.

Passerina 2011
A lesser known indigenous variety in Abruzzo, considerably softer, cleaner and gentler than the Pecorino before it. On the nose there were subtle peach and pear fruits with a complex reggiano cheese skin, and on the palate showed some creaminess with the delicate fruit notes.

Villa Chiara Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2011
Full, broad and rich, had great acidity freshness and approachability, but somehow lacked definition and personality. I’m not sure how this could be achieved, perhaps it is a result of the vine age, or perhaps some lees contact could be introduced to add some more structure and texture.

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2010
A bold black fruit and spicy pepper nose, and on the palate was full, intense and warm, very approachable and reflective of the variety, but finished a little short.

Riserva Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2007
Quite different, showing the difference in oak treatment and vintage. It was fuller and heavier, very bold in tannins and texture, with developed red and purple fruit notes, and whilst the oak was intense it wasn’t sweet or clumsy, and added complexity to the wine rather than distracting from the fruit.

The Baron Valforte winery

The Barone di Valforte winery

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May 3, 2012 · 9:00 pm

People power (Abruzzo, Italy – Day Two)

In my humble opinion, it takes three things and only three to make great wine; all other elements merely support the others. The first is of course the environment, which includes both the climate/weather and the actual earth & surrounding vegetation. The second element is the vine itself, and ensuring that the right variety is planted in the right location. The third element is people, because everything each person does towards a wine leaves an impact. What elements you use to produce the wine is somewhat irrelevant, and is completely up to the producer. At the end of the day, wine is made using the same process of fermentation, regardless of where you are in the world. People may enter the business of wine from many different backgrounds, be they agricultural, business, marketing, sales, or any other unique origin. Many people are lovers of great wine, many enter the business to make money, some may inherit or take after their parents, and still more may desire a complete change of scenery. In many cases people may produce wine around their day-to-day profession, growing grapes and/or making wine as a hobby. Eventually they may leave their other profession to focus solely on the wine, and others may employ people to handle the production of the wine. Regardless of people’s backgrounds or motives, the ultimate prerequisite to work with great wine is passion and commitment, as wine is not a short-term investment, nor are you likely to achieve overnight success. In my quest I have met so many different people who have all left their mark, regardless of their level of involvement or responsibilities. My final visit for Abruzzo was with a family of noble origins, not the first and probably not the last of my trip.

Barone di Valforte vineyards

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May 3, 2012 · 6:10 pm

Express yourself (Abruzzo, Italy – Day One)

One of the things I have noticed on my trip visiting wine regions is that the best wines come from vineyards planted on a slope. There are exceptions to this of course, but these wines are generally not necessarily of elegance, nor do they come from cool climate regions. All of the regions I have visited in Italy so far, including Tuscany and Valpolicella, have steep and/or terraced vineyards where the best fruit tends to come from. In every case the fruit grown in vineyards on valley floors or flat lands provide volume and approachability. What varies of course is the steepness, elevation, exposition and depth of the soils and this in turn reacts with the particular variety and micro-climates. The fascinating thing about Italy which I didn’t realise is that the entire length of the mainland has a mountain range through it, known as the Appenino Mountains. These mountains are quite wild and imposing between Lazio and Abruzzo/Le Marche, a fact I discovered quite well when I drove from the Adriatic Coast to Rome and back for the weekend. Much like the Great Dividing Range up the east coast of Australia, or the Rockies/Andes Mountains that travels the entire west coast of the Americas, this allows viticulture to be quite diverse and high quality along them. Even in Mediterranean climates like in Abruzzo, you can easily produce red and white wines of elegance and structure, but plenty of fruit and tannin. How one expresses the climate, soils and native varieties is ultimately up to the producer, as I was to discover on my first day in the Abruzzo region.

Me in the 11th century tower on the Torre Raone estate in Abruzzo

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