Having simply come again from every week in Abruzzo stuffed with enthusiasm for the native wines, it’s disappointing to seek out what number of have proved to be unavailable within the UK. It appears we see the area solely as a supply of bargain-basement consuming: each its finest recognized wines, trebbiano and montepulciano d’Abruzzo (to not be confused with Tuscany’s vino nobile di Montepulciano), can usually be discovered for lower than £5.
Whereas Tesco’s Vista Castelli Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (11.5%) is certainly not unhealthy, particularly at £4, I wouldn’t concur with the corporate’s tasting be aware that implies it has “fantastic ageing potential”. Till Christmas, perhaps, and solely then at a pinch.
Trebbiano, nevertheless, deserves to be taken extra significantly, as certainly do many smaller producers in Abruzzo. This grape has discovered favour with the pure winemaking brigade, who use it to make intriguing, pale gold to amber-coloured wines by leaving the unfermented juice involved with the skins for something from a couple of hours to a number of weeks. This provides it slightly extra heft and tannin than your typical white, and the flexibility to face as much as meat such because the native arrosticini, or lamb kebabs.
The opposite whites of the area are pecorino and passerina, which produce extra typical, crisp wines that go brilliantly with the native seafood. Most come from the low-lying vineyards of the Terre de Chieti nearer the coast. Abruzzo is very hilly, and even mountainous as you enterprise farther inland, which helps to elucidate the price of the higher wines, a few of which run into three figures, in eating places not less than.
Montepulciano can be able to being greater than an affordable pizza wine, producing critical, structured reds that may simply hit 15%, although I discover the much less alcoholic examples extra elegant. Once more, you’ll discover extra left-field examples within the arms of biodynamic winemakers similar to Francesco Cirelli, who ages his wines in amphoras – or amphorae, for the classicists amongst you. You'll find his vivid, brambly 2020 montepulciano on the Nice Wine Co for £18.50 (or £16.55 when you purchase a blended case).
The grape can be used to make a scrumptious, deep magenta-coloured rosé referred to as cerasuolo, which is woefully skinny on the bottom within the UK, primarily, I think, as a result of it doesn’t conform to the whisper-pink Provençal norm. Sadly, some winemakers have given up making the standard fashion, but when you will get maintain of any (which, when you’re a Wine Society member, it is possible for you to to), you’ll discover it’s a superb match for a barbecue.
5 wines to strive from Abruzzo
Pecorino Terre di Chieti 2020£7.99 Waitrose, 13%. Easy vivid, citrussy white that sauvignon blanc followers will like.
La Chiamata Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2020£10.99 (or £9.49 when you purchase 12) Laithwaites, 12%. An appealingly mild, recent, food-friendly white to drink with seafood or antipasti (I wouldn’t purchase the considerably clumsily made purple, although).
Co-op Irresistible Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2019 £8 Co-op, 13%. Satisfyingly easy, wealthy and plummy. Made for lasagne or a meaty pizza. Value paying the additional over fundamental Montepulciano.
Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, Contesa 2021£8.50 The Wine Society, 13%. Exuberantly fruity, magenta-coloured rosato that might be nice with a barbecue. (You might even pop an ice dice in it!)
Le Vigne di Faraone Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2020£16.50 Berry Bros & Rudd, 12.5%. Trebbiano given the natural-wine therapy, with an attractive flavour of quince, apple peel and baked apple (nevertheless it’s not cidery). Value ageing for a few years.
For extra by Fiona Beckett, go to matchingfoodandwine.com
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