Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2018

The wine in this vintage

After the drought of 2017, 2018 brought a cooler, wetter season to Abruzzo, with slower ripening and grapes of taut, aromatic character. For a white like Valentini's Trebbiano, which lives on acidity and savouriness, it is an ideal setting. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2018 has a nose of great purity: lemon, grapefruit, green apple, white flowers, meadow herbs, flint and a hint of fresh almond; the palate is vertical and saline, with an energy that carries into a very persistent finish. Robert Parker gave it 96 points, Jancis Robinson 18/20. This Trebbiano can already be appreciated today, but it has a long evolution ahead and will gain complexity and depth with the years.

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.

Critics' scores

• 96 Robert Parker
• 94 Antonio Galloni
• 18/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Valentini

Region

Abruzzo

Country

Italia

Type

Bianco

Vintage

2018

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

95/100

Sizes

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

eWibe code

0980118