The Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo tasting last Monday in Philadelphia — held at Abruzzo-themed restaurant Le Virtù — was a good excuse to get reacquainted with the iconic Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, which I did some deep dives into years ago but haven’t drank as much lately.
Well-made “Monty” is always a treat, with loads of cherry fruit and stern but not oppressive tannins. It’s great with food, in particular Le Virtù’s grilled lamb arrosticini, a classic dish of the region.
The main challenge growing this grape is ensuring the pips ripen along with the flesh, otherwise the resulting wine easily can become out of balance. As such, many cheaper versions can suffer from unripe, green notes, though as winemaking technology improves this may become less of an issue.
On the other end of the spectrum, for many years, higher-end Montepulciano suffered from consistent over-oaking by its producers, a trend that is thankfully dying, though not entirely gone. The most expensive wine we tried today — the 2021 Marina Cvetić Iskra from iconic producer Masciarelli — certainly showed a lot of new oak at this point, but also had structure to match. I’m sure it’ll be quite nice once it has some time to harmonize in the bottle, but at the same time shows there is still work to be done to figure out MdA’s ideal oak balance.
Perhaps more exciting, however, was the Tritàno Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC, which our hosts paired with the (slightly) lighter pasta course, but also showcased how fun and versatile Montepulciano can be when aged in steel and made in this more approachable style.
This lunch was also a chance to try parrazzo (in dialect, lu parozz’), the traditional Abruzzo Christmas cake — think Abruzzese panettone, though there are differences — which I’ve yearned to try but never sampled. Made with almond flour, saffron and candied orange peel, the cake is then covered in a layer of chocolate ganache. For anyone interested in traditional Italian holiday dishes, this is an absolute must try. (The pictured biscotti were also tasty.)
Anyway, back to the wines: which Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines do you recommend?
