Having just come back from a week in Abruzzo full of enthusiasm for the local wines, it’s disappointing to find how many have proved to be unavailable in the UK. It seems we see the region only as a source of bargain-basement drinking: both its best known wines, trebbiano and montepulciano d’Abruzzo (not to be confused with Tuscany’s vino nobile di Montepulciano), can regularly be found for less than £5.
While Tesco’s Vista Castelli Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (11.5%) is by no means bad, especially at £4, I wouldn’t concur with the company’s tasting note that suggests it has “wonderful ageing potential”. Until Christmas, maybe, and only then at a pinch.
Trebbiano, however, deserves to be taken more seriously, as indeed do many smaller producers in Abruzzo. This grape has found favour with the natural winemaking brigade, who use it to make intriguing, pale gold to amber-coloured wines by leaving the unfermented juice in contact with the skins for anything from a few hours to several weeks. This gives it rather more heft and tannin than your typical white, and the ability to stand up to meat such as the local arrosticini, or lamb kebabs.
The other whites of the region are pecorino and passerina, which produce more conventional, crisp wines that go brilliantly with the local seafood. Most come from the low-lying vineyards of the Terre de Chieti nearer the coast. Abruzzo is extraordinarily hilly, and even mountainous as you venture farther inland, which helps to explain the cost of the better wines, some of which run into three figures, in restaurants at least.
Montepulciano is also capable of being more than a cheap pizza wine, producing serious, structured reds that can easily hit 15%, though I find the less alcoholic examples more elegant. Again, you’ll find more left-field examples in the hands of biodynamic winemakers such as Francesco Cirelli, who ages his wines in amphoras – or amphorae, for the classicists among you. You can find his vivid, brambly 2020 montepulciano at the Great Wine Co for £18.50 (or £16.55 if you buy a mixed case).
The grape is also used to make a delicious, deep magenta-coloured rosé called cerasuolo, which is woefully thin on the ground in the UK, mainly, I suspect, because it doesn’t conform to the whisper-pink Provençal norm. Sadly, some winemakers have given up making the traditional style, but if you can get hold of any (which, if you’re a Wine Society member, you will be able to), you’ll find it’s a brilliant match for a barbecue.
Five wines to try from Abruzzo
Pecorino Terre di Chieti 2020 £7.99 Waitrose, 13%. Simple bright, citrussy white that sauvignon blanc fans will like.
La Chiamata Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2020 £10.99 (or £9.49 if you buy 12) Laithwaites, 12%. An appealingly light, fresh, food-friendly white to drink with seafood or antipasti (I wouldn’t buy the somewhat clumsily made red, though).
Co-op Irresistible Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2019 £8 Co-op, 13%. Satisfyingly smooth, rich and plummy. Made for lasagne or a meaty pizza. Worth paying the extra over basic Montepulciano.
Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, Contesa 2021 £8.50 The Wine Society, 13%. Exuberantly fruity, magenta-coloured rosato that would be great with a barbecue. (You could even pop an ice cube in it!)
Le Vigne di Faraone Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2020 £16.50 Berry Bros & Rudd, 12.5%. Trebbiano given the natural-wine treatment, with an enticing flavour of quince, apple peel and baked apple (but it’s not cidery). Worth ageing for a couple of years.
For more by Fiona Beckett, go to matchingfoodandwine.com
