Abruzzo is a region of contrasts, with vineyards that sit between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines. It is at once one of Italy’s most productive and most overlooked wine regions, but beneath Abruzzo’s reputation for volume lies a far more intricate landscape.
To reframe Abruzzo is to recognize its mosaic of terroirs: wind-carved valleys, mineral-rich soils, and vineyards threaded between ancient olive trees. It is a landscape that demands resilience, not only from those who farm it but from the vines themselves, yielding wines that are less about intervention than they are about interpretation. The lineage of many regional practices, often mistaken for modern innovations, can be traced back centuries, carried forward quietly until the wider wine world was ready to notice. Neither relics of tradition nor symbols of reinvention, Abruzzo’s wines are expressions of place, born where nature, culture, and continuity converge.
Abruzzo’s defining feature is its geography: it is a narrow strip of land where the Apennines plunge toward the Adriatic. During a 30-minute drive, it is possible to climb from sea level to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet). Divided among four provinces—mountainous L’Aquila, northern Teramo, southern Chieti, and central Pescara—the terrain is as varied as it is dramatic. The limestone peaks of Gran Sasso and Majella dominate the west, descending into rolling hills before flattening to coastal plains. Formed by crustal folding some 20 million years ago, the region’s soils range from gray-blue marls near Pescara to clay-limestone ridges in Teramo and sandy alluvium by the sea. Each composition offers a different register of perfume, salinity, and texture, allowing the same grape to yield remarkably distinct expressions depending on where it is rooted.
This compression of mountain and sea fosters a rare diversity of microclimates. Abruzzo devotes more than a third of its territory to protected areas—three national parks, a regional park, and several marine reserves—making it one of Europe’s most ecologically intact regions. Francesco Valentini, whose vineyards and olive groves are in Loreto Aprutino, observes that Abruzzo’s vast expanse of wildland “remains both its greatest strength and its underappreciated resource.” Here, viticulture coexists with wilderness; biodiversity is the foundation of viticultural health.
At the biodynamically farmed Emidio Pepe estate, in Torano Nuovo, Chiara De Iulis Pepe frames this interdependence as an ethical mandate. She explains, “Our goal is to create union and density—to understand how everything is interstitched.” For her, soil health is inseparable from planetary health: with agriculture responsible for roughly a quarter of global carbon emissions, farming practices determine whether the land contributes to or helps alleviate climate change. The Pepe estate cultivates companion crops, uses only natural composts, and encourages microbial and mycorrhizal diversity to sequester carbon. The family’s land stewardship extends to conserving wildlands in its vicinity. De Iulis Pepe adds, “The benefits of biodynamic farming are local and long term”—a quiet antidote to the extractive pace of modern agriculture.
Abruzzo’s climate mirrors its geography in its extremes. The juxtaposition of warm Adriatic breezes and cool mountain air produces wide diurnal swings, extending the growing season and preserving acidity. Cristiana Tiberio, whose family estate is located near the town of Cugnoli, explains, “The main character of our area is the length of the growing season, with a lot of difference between day and night.” The constant ventilation between mountain and sea also limits disease pressure, making organic and biodynamic viticulture more viable.
Yet climate change is testing these natural advantages. While many in the region have celebrated the warmer conditions, Valentini cautions, “It doesn’t feel like we keep having great vintages; it feels irresponsible just to look at our little zones.” Valentini’s historic records show that, until the 1970s, harvest dates for local cultivars remained stable, whereas today sugar ripeness often precedes phenolic maturity. To help communicate these changes, he and a consortium of producers from Loreto Aprutino commissioned studies led by the agronomist Gabriele Valentini (no relation to the winery), which showed that temperatures have risen by roughly 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade since 1980, with more frequent days above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and increasingly erratic rainfall. Tiberio concurs, “Rainfall is no longer as frequent as it is supposed to be,” describing drought as a defining element of the present climate. Still, the region’s proximity to the Apennines offers a buffer: melting snow replenishes subterranean aquifers that sustain the vines when surface water is scarce.
For many growers, adaptation now means encouraging deeper rooting and preserving the traditional pergola abruzzese, whose shaded microclimate mitigates heat and evaporation. Abruzzo’s diversity of altitudes, exposures, and soils continues to act as a natural safety net, with ecological resilience encoded in its terrain.
Despite Abruzzo’s deep-rooted traditions, its modern wine identity is shaped by tension between scale and individuality. The region produces over 36 million cases annually, long dominated by cooperatives and bulk operations that supplied inexpensive wines to domestic and export markets. Yet beneath that industrial surface, a generation of family growers have steadily redefined quality. Valentini says, “This has always been a space for large, industrial wineries, but, with the new generation, things are changing—young producers are rediscovering artisanal, traditional winemaking.”
Viticulture here dates to Roman times and is cited in classical and Renaissance texts—from those of Polybius to Andrea Bacci’s De Naturali Vinorum Historia (1596)—and in 18th-century accounts of Montepulciano cultivation near Sulmona. This viticultural tradition is intertwined with one of Italy’s richest agrarian landscapes, where vineyards coexist with centuries-old olive groves, wheat and lentil fields, and wild flora. Tiberio stresses, “This biodiversity is very important to preserve the health condition of the environment.”
Historically, most vineyards were trained to the tendone, or pergola abruzzese, a horizontal canopy that shades fruit from intense sunlight and, in mountain zones, from winter snow. In the 1980s, higher-density Guyot and spurred-cordon systems gained favor, introduced by producers such as Gianni Masciarelli, who were interested in raising the quality bar of Abruzzo’s wines, encouraged by subsidies and the belief, summarized by the agronomist Maurizio Gily, that “quality always requires high density with modest growth per vine.” Many old pergolas were uprooted or abandoned in the rush toward modernization.
In recent years, however, research by Gily and regional producers has challenged the assumption that pergola systems produce inferior fruit. Their multivintage studies found that differences in grape composition stemmed less from the training method than from the vineyard management. Properly farmed, the pergola’s shaded canopy mitigates heat stress, preserves acidity, and allows vines to tap subsoil moisture—advantages increasingly relevant under drought conditions, for the right variety in the right location.
The Valentini estate has upheld this tradition since the 1600s. For Francesco Valentini, the pergola is not an anachronism but “an instrument of terroir.” His Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is grown on pergolas 1.8 meters (6 feet) high, nourished with horse and cow compost, and cultivated without herbicides—only copper, sulfur, calcium, and occasionally bentonite. He says, “We work the land to help it breathe. I don’t make wine. The vineyard does.”
By contrast, Tiberio, who is a chemist by training, represents Abruzzo’s scientific vanguard. Her family’s vineyards, farmed with minimal inputs, are treated as ecological laboratories—places where empirical observation meets instinct. Through field mapping and DNA analysis, she has distinguished true Trebbiano Abruzzese from its long-confused relatives and identified Montepulciano biotypes correlated to soil and exposure. The estate combines old double-pergola vines resuscitated over several years—“two trunks coupled to resist snow and wind”—with newer Guyot-trained parcels planted from Tiberio’s own massal selection. Each site has its own balance; the system must adapt to the vigor of the soil and the variety. The pergola, in this view, is regional logic.
Established in 1972, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo DOC governs white wines made primarily (minimum 85%) from the family of Trebbiano grapes. Once dismissed as bland, the DOC’s wines are now recognized for their aromatic nuance and longevity. Trebbiano Abruzzese is a native variety that has only recently been disentangled from Bombino Bianco and Trebbiano Toscano, and, as Ian d’Agata notes, true Trebbiano Abruzzese yields wines of “white flowers and stone fruit, a creamy mouthfeel, and citrusy minerality,” provided it is harvested early to retain acidity and perfume.
Viticulturally vigorous yet sensitive, the variety forms long, pyramidal clusters of thin-skinned berries that resist sunburn and retain acidity. Its high polyphenol content once made oxidation a challenge, but careful canopy management and reductive vinification have improved the wines.
No one has articulated this potential more clearly than Valentini, whose Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, fermented spontaneously with native yeasts and aged in large, old oak casks, is an expression of patience. Every decision, from vineyard to cellar, stems from the belief that, as Valentini explains, “if I don’t construct the wine but instead try to find a grape that is healthy and harmonious, the wine will find its equilibrium in time.” In the cellar, his approach is ascetic: no temperature control, selected yeasts, filtration, or concentration, and only a minimal addition of sulfur (six to seven milligrams per liter) to stabilize the wine. Each vintage is composed from multiple pickings—earlier for acidity, later for phenolic depth—that are blended. Wines are aged in large oak casks, some dating to the 18th and 19th centuries.
For Tiberio, precision replaces mysticism but not humility. She prefers to pick Trebbiano Abruzzese “sooner rather than later” to capture lift and energy, and her winemaking techniques favor the reductive environment of stainless steel. Her Fonte Canale, a single-vineyard bottling from 90-year-old vines, has become a benchmark: linear, mineral, and built to age.
Other producers, like Tenuta I Fauri, in the Colline Teatine area of Chieti, make deliciously approachable expressions, both in terms of taste profile and price point, that maintain the signature saline characteristic of Trebbiano Abruzzese grown in their calcareous-clay soils.
If Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is the region’s spine, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is its muscle. Established in 1968 as Italy’s first all-regional DOC, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo spans the province, from coastal plains to mountain terraces. A late-ripening grape rich in anthocyanins and soft tannins, Montepulciano thrives in the region’s long growing season and dramatic diurnal shifts. Tiberio explains, “Being a late-ripening variety, it needs time to ripen slowly and fully; otherwise, the pips don’t ripen properly, and wines will be bitter.”
The DOC accommodates a remarkable stylistic range. Coastal areas, particularly around Chieti, produce fruit-forward, approachable wines, while higher inland zones yield structured, cellar-worthy expressions, against a sea of overoaked and rustic wines. In the high terraces of the Peligna valley, in L’Aquila, Praesidium crafts mountain-born Montepulciano wines that reflect the area’s cool nights, thin soils, and steep diurnal variations. These wines—aged in large Slavonian oak casks and released after years of bottle aging—balance dark fruit, wild herbs, graphite, and freshness, offering a counterpoint to the softer coastal styles.
In Teramo, Emidio Pepe’s Montepulciano is vinified manually: foot-crushed, fermented with native yeasts, and aged in concrete. Decades-old vintages retain remarkable vitality, the tannins softened and the wine still pulsing with earth and iron, a study in purity over power. Made from grapes grown in Colline Teramane DOCG, a subzone defined in 2003, the wine showcases Montepulciano’s iron-edged tannins and ageability. Experimental bottlings, such as Tenuta Terraviva’s carbonic maceration cuvée, offer a lighter, juicier profile.
Tiberio’s ongoing research into Montepulciano biotypes adds a new dimension to the variety, reflected in her single-vineyard wines Archivio and Colle Vota. The former, based on 67-year-old pergola-trained vines on limestone-clay soils with four biotypes, shows powerfully against a backbone of dark fruit and muscular tension. The latter, made from younger vines from a massal selection planted on limestone and marly-clay over a sandstone bedrock, delivers a light-footed expression reminiscent of finer-bodied wines from Piedmont and Burgundy. Together, they prove that Montepulciano, long typecast as rustic, can rival Italy’s most articulate reds when farmed and made thoughtfully.
Granted its own DOC in 2010, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo bridges the region’s reds and whites. Traditionally made entirely from Montepulciano (today a minimum 85% is required), the category’s vivid cherry color results from brief skin contact, capturing the grape’s natural anthocyanin richness in a lighter frame. Unlike most rosés, Cerasuolo has texture, minerality, and structure, often showing wild strawberry, pomegranate, and herbal notes over a saline backbone. Valentini, Pepe, and others craft examples that age for a decade or longer, but equally compelling are crisp, fruity bottlings, such as Baldovino from Tenuta I Fauri.
Pecorino has emerged as Abruzzo’s second great white variety—a rediscovered grape whose name recalls the pecore (sheep) that once grazed its vineyards. Cataldi Madonna is credited with the resurgence of this variety, which had fallen out of favor because of its lower productivity. With naturally high acidity and thick skins, it yields concentrated yet vibrant wines with herbal lift, pear and apple fruit notes, and a characteristic saline snap. While Pecorino can be blended, varietal expressions have proliferated in the past two decades, with even established producers, including Emidio Pepe, making a monovarietal wine. The Emidio Pepe Pecorino Colli Aprutini IGT is produced in the same low-intervention manner for which the estate is renowned—hand-destemmed, native yeast fermentation, no filtration. With its naturally high acidity, textural grip, and saline backbone, Pecorino is, as De Iulis Pepe explains, “a conduit for the balance between the mountain and the sea.”
Other native white varieties, such as Passerina and Cococciola, add further nuance to Abruzzo’s biodiversity. Passerina, once mistaken for Trebbiano, has delicate floral aromatics and vivacity, while Cococciola, especially from the Chieti hills, offers a crisp, citrus-driven expression ideal for sparkling or youthful still wines. Together, these cultivars, often blended, reflect the region’s ecological mosaic and its growing commitment to preserving indigenous varieties.
To reframe Abruzzo is to see its wines as variations on the dialogue between mountain and sea, tradition and innovation. Abruzzo’s identity is inseparable from its biodiversity, and its renaissance is about recognition rather than reinvention: recognition of the sophistication of its old vines, the resilience of its farming traditions, and the quiet confidence of its growers. These wines are made less to impress than to endure—proof that, in this corner of Italy, nature is interpreted not tamed, its extremes transformed into harmony and grace.
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