Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

The rules open with Polybius, the Greek historian of the second century BC, who wrote that after Cannae (216 BC) Hannibal's wounded were healed with wines of this area, and with Ovid, born at Sulmona in 43 BC, who called his Peligna homeland rich in grapes. The first historical record of the Montepulciano grape in Abruzzo is in Michele Torcia's account of a journey through the Peligni country made in 1792. Panfilo Serafini wrote in 1854 that early and late montepulciano were the commonest vines at Sulmona, and Ottavi and Marescalchi described the grape in 1897.

Long confined to the Valle Peligna, the grape spread toward the coast at the end of the nineteenth century and became the region's most planted red after the Second World War. The DOC was recognised in 1968. Later amendments added subzones, and Colline Teramane became a separate DOCG in 2003.

The zone takes in the whole coastal and foothill belt of Abruzzo, widening inland to the Alto Tirino plateau and the Subequana, Peligna and Roveto valleys. The vine hills are Plio-Pleistocene deposits that filled the Adriatic basin in a marine cycle at the end of the Tertiary and start of the Quaternary, in a belt about 20-25 km wide and 125 km long from the Tronto to the Trigno. Clays with sand are overlain by fine to medium siliceous sands, yellowish from iron oxides, with silts, gravels and clays. The soils are mostly sandy-clay and loose, more clayey in the north; the inland basins lie on old river terraces. Water retention is medium-low and humus scarce.

Vineyards must be on hills up to 600 m, or 700 m on south-facing slopes; damp valley floors are excluded. Rain exceeds 800 mm, over 80 mm a month in November and December and about 30 mm in July. Cold Balkan air in winter and the Adriatic in summer give a wide annual range.

The rules regard Montepulciano as an Abruzzese native variety, by its long presence and its balance with the area. Sunny, ventilated hills, a temperate climate and large day-night swings, between the Adriatic to the east and the Gran Sasso and Maiella massifs to the west, together with loose, well-drained soils, give red wines of great structure and body with intense scents. Slight differences of climate from north to south and east to west define macro-areas, the basis of the subzones. The wine is intense ruby with light violet tints, turning garnet with age; it smells of red fruit (cherry, blackberry) and, when aged, of preserves and spice (pepper, tobacco, liquorice); the taste is dry, slightly tannic, velvety and harmonious.

The DOC requires at least 85% Montepulciano, with other non-aromatic red grapes suited to Abruzzo up to 15%. Yield may reach 15 t/ha, and the traditional pergola abruzzese is used alongside wire training. The basic wine may be sold from 1 February after the harvest and is meant to be drunk within one or two years; words such as 'riserva' or 'superiore' are banned on it.

Nine subzones have their own annexes: Terre di Casauria (100% Montepulciano), Terre dei Vestini, Alto Tirino, Terre dei Peligni and Teate, each also as Riserva, and Terre di Chieti, Terre Aquilane, Colline Pescaresi and San Martino sulla Marrucina, as Superiore or Riserva. Those checked require 90% or 95% Montepulciano. According to the rules' summary, Superiore needs six months' ageing and Riserva 24 months, six of them in wood.