Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017

The wine in this vintage

2017 is remembered throughout Italy as a hot, drought-stricken year, with spring frosts in some areas and a torrid summer that cut yields and concentrated the grapes. Against that backdrop, Valentini's Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017 is surprisingly balanced: the richness of its fruit, from brandied cherry to blackberry and plum, comes with notes of dried violet, aromatic herbs, black pepper, leather and liquorice, while the palate stays fresh and layered, with dense but polished tannins and a long, savoury close. It carries the warmth of the vintage without losing the estate's characteristic nobility. Already enjoyable today with adequate aeration, it nonetheless deserves a few more years in the cellar to show its best.

The producer · Valentini

In Loreto Aprutino, on the hills of the Pescara province between the Gran Sasso massif and the Adriatic, the Valentini estate has been a legend of Italian wine for decades. The architect of that fame was Edoardo Valentini, who died in 2006: a cultured, reserved man who devoted his life to proving the potential of Abruzzo's native grapes, until then thought capable only of simple wines. Today his son Francesco Paolo carries on his work with the same discretion. The philosophy is radical: respectful farming, low yields and extremely strict selection, so that only a small share of the grapes ends up bottled under the family name, with spontaneous fermentations and long ageing in large oak casks. The result is a Trebbiano d'Abruzzo regarded as one of Italy's greatest whites, a deep, long-lived Montepulciano d'Abruzzo made only in years judged worthy, and a cult Cerasuolo. Rare, hard-to-find wines of extraordinary ageing capacity.

Technical details

Producer

Valentini

Region

Abruzzo

Country

Italia

Type

Rosso

Vintage

2017

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0980217