When you find a great under-the-radar, bargain-priced ramen or dumpling joint in a big city, you may only tell a few select friends (and only if you’re feeling generous). But some secrets are too delicious to keep—especially if there’s plenty to go around.
So here goes: Abruzzo is making some of the most innovative, progressive and plain-old yummy wines in Italy, for a fraction of the price the country’s better-known premium regions are cranking out.
Abruzzo on the Map
Abruzzo is a mountainous region in central Italy that extends and spills out into the Adriatic Sea. There are about 81,500 acres of grapes under vine, 42,000 acres of which are devoted to the red grape Montepulciano, and 24,700 of which are planted to the white grape Trebbiano. Smaller plantings of Pecorino, Passerina, Cococciola and Montonico make up most of the balance, although there is a smattering of international varieties as well.
There are far more grape growers (6,000+) than wine producers (just 250), but many of the best winemakers insist on growing all of their own grapes so they can control every aspect of the production from grape to bottle.
Abruzzo is hardly an unknown, but decades of focusing on quantity over quality has meant that when most people see it on a label, they expect a cheerful and robust wine that tastes good and goes down easy. There’s a huge market for reasonably priced, tasty wine, but in recent decades, Abruzzo has pushed the envelope, producing wines that aren’t “just” yummy but that also reflect the spirit of the land and people that made them.
Things in the wine world move slowly, and for decades, there has been a drumbeat of change in Abruzzo that is finally seeing it rise from its lower-tier position to an ultra-premium perch (still available at a cut-rate price… for now).
For the most part, Abruzzo has followed the paint-by-the-numbers model of better winemaking and farming that other regions have used to great success. The best wineries farm organically or biodynamically; they harvest carefully and focus on quality over quantity; in the cellar, there is an increasing focus on fermenting and aging vineyards individually to better showcase terroir.
But there are a few other notable changes instituted primarily by new and young vintners that are helping Abruzzo emerge as one of the most promising winemaking regions in Italy today.
Delving into the Past with Amphora
In many ways, the grapes of Abruzzo seem ideal for amphora. Amphora, or clay vessels, originated in the country of Georgia around 8,000 years ago. In Abruzzo, there are records of vintners using amphora as far back as the second century BC. While they were used for millennia to ferment and age grapes, the practice of using oak for aging eclipsed amphora centuries ago in most mainstream regions.
But recently, amphora has been growing in popularity. Unlike oak barrels, amphora are inert, meaning they don’t impart a flavor on the fermenting juice, and both winemakers and wine lovers increasingly want wines that speak of the place they were grown, not the hands and vessels that make them.
If you’ve ever tasted butter, vanilla, clove, smoke, coffee, cinnamon or chocolate in your wine, you’ve tasted an oak-aged wine.
For winemakers seeking the benefits of a porous vessel (oxygen allows wine to develop richer, deeper and more complex flavors) but not the influence of the wood, amphora has become an increasingly attractive alternative.
The red and white grapes of Abruzzo tend to be lusty, robust and wild-tasting, and amphora allow them to howl without taming or muting their power while also harmonizing and uplifting the expression.
Ausonia Azienda Agricola, founded in 2011 with 35 acres of organic, biodynamic grapes, produces a thoroughly modern but also classic line of wines, two of which are aged in amphora.
“Everything we do, from planting beneficial cover crops and indigenous plants around the vineyard to collecting rainwater for reuse is done to help the grapes express this unique terroir,” says Simone Binelli, who owns and runs the winery along with his wife, Francesca. “We see the amphora as an extension of that because it allows the grapes to evolve, but it doesn’t add any flavors.”
Indeed, the Machaon wine, made from the white Pecorino grape grown in clay and limestone soils on a vineyard influenced by the Adriatic Sea and protected by the Gran Sasso massif in the Apennine Mountains, is intense and expressive, with notes of peaches, nectarines, blood oranges, herbs and minerals. There’s structure, but it’s softer than many of the Pecorinos I’ve tasted that were aged in oak.
Francesco Cirelli Azienda Agricola is producing probably the best-known (and most widely available) line of amphora-aged wines from Abruzzo, and they are equally compelling.
Cirelli purchased his 57-acre estate in 2003 and has long sought to “bring out as much as I can of the peculiarity of the region, the season’s harvest and even my own sentiments in the wine” via amphora.
Cirelli ferments and ages Pecorino, Montepulciano and Trebbiano in amphora for individual bottlings, all delicious. The standout though is Abruzzo’s answer to rosé, Cerasuolo. Deeper and more food-friendly than a classic Provence rosé, Cerasuolo is made from Montepulciano grapes and aged in amphora. In the glass, it’s cherries, raspberries, bramble and wild herbs.
A Sparkling Present
During and after COVID, the world thirsted for bubbles. No longer just a toast-worthy sip at weddings and anniversaries, sparkling wine in all forms became something everyone wanted because it was Tuesday, full stop.
In Abruzzo, producers are providing a range of bubbles, from traditional method champenoise bubbles to pét-nats. The best ones are made from indigenous Abruzzo grapes.
The Faraone family epitomizes Abruzzo’s past and future. Now run by Federico Faraone, his grandfather first grew grapes here for large cooperative wineries, and his father was the first to begin bottling wines sourced from their vineyards.
“I was the first one who studied wine in school,” Faraone explains. “Our terroir is very particular. We have vineyards in Colline Teramane, Abruzzo’s only (another is set for approval shortly) DOCG. We get influences from the sea and mountains, and at our elevation [up to 350 meters above sea level], we get great sun exposure.”
Faraone’s father, Giovanni, was the first vintner in the region to make sparkling wine.
“He bottled his first Spumante in 1983,” Faraone explains. “We choose to work with Passerina grapes because of the acidity and pH levels. It has similarly high acidity levels and low pH levels of Champagne. We make the sparkling wine in the classic Champagne method.”
He also makes a sparkling wine with Sangiovese grapes; the Passerina gets 24 months of aging on the lees, while the Sangiovese gets 48. Everything is hand-riddled. (Hand-riddling is a labor-intensive step in the sparkling winemaking process. A “bottle turner” must rotate wine bottles daily by hand for up to six weeks before the fermentation process is complete.) The Passerina tastes like a classic Champagne, filtered through Abruzzo terroir. There’s the power and cream, a hint of bread crust, bright green apples, almond skins, salinity and Abruzzo garrigue.
Other producers soon followed in Faraone’s footsteps and began making sparkling wine with all of Abruzzo’s grapes in a range of styles.
In 2018, the regional association of winemakers, the Consorzio di Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo, created a collective brand they named Spumante d’Abruzzo DOC Trabocco. In 2020, the brand was officially registered as Trabocco, and it aims to highlight the elegance, power and complexity of native grapes like Passerina, but also Pecorino, Trebbiano, Montonico, Cocciola and Montepulciano.
Other regions, like Ausonia, are making cheerful porch pounders in the pét-nat style from their baby Trebbiano grapes. (Pét-nat is shorthand for pétillant naturel, a natural sparkling wine that is partially fermented in bottle. It is generally considered to be more rustic and simple in style than sparkling wine made in the traditional Champagne method, which undergoes two fermentations.)
“This vineyard is young, just six years old,” says Binelli. “We love creating an approachable wine. All of our labels, and the name of our brand, which translates to ‘butterfly,’ are devoted to different butterflies you can generally only find in our region. We decided to put a caterpillar on the pét-nat label because we see it as young, wild and full of potential.”
Reaching into the Future
While Abruzzo may just be coming into its own now, it arguably never would have had the opportunity to do so without the help of the dynamic visionary Emidio Pepe. In 1964, the third-generation grape grower started his own winery. His father and grandfather grew grapes and then sold them to larger cooperatives that used those grapes to create basic, mass-market wines. Convinced of Abruzzo’s distinct terroir, he became determined to bottle and showcase its uniqueness.
He bought land and planted a diverse selection of grapes and was the first vintner in the region to envision and realize the aging power of Montepulciano and Trebbiano. Today at 91, Emidio Pepe is hailed by critics across the world as one of Italy’s leading lights and the visionary who elevated Abruzzo.
Today, his daughter, Stefania Pepe, is embracing Emidio’s spirit of innovation and love of the land and kicking it up a notch. In 2003, she completed a partially underground biodynamic winery that utilizes gravity instead of electricity to make wine and uses the earth’s cooling powers to keep the fermenting and aging wine at a steady temperature.
“I wanted to do something a little different than my father, but in the same spirit,” she explains. “I farm organically and biodynamically and use as little intervention as possible. Spontaneous fermentation, no added sulphites or fining. I use cement to age my wine because I want to be able to taste what’s happening in the vineyard.”
She isn’t even 100% sure what grapes are in her white blend, Pepe Bianco.
“These grapes are a field blend from a vineyard my grandfather planted in 1958,” she says. “I think it’s Passerina, Pecorino and Trebbiano. But we pick everything from the field together and blend. It’s more about the vineyard and the year than the individual grapes.”
The wine is robust but refined, with notes of kumquat, acacia, dried pears, spice and minerals.
The Farchione family at Guardiani Farchione is pushing even further. Founded in 1974 as a winery with at least two centuries of wine-growing in the family’s past, they have always aimed to create wines that are “long-aging, unique and refined, a reflection of our land,” says Giampaolo Guardiani, a member of the second-generation winemaking team at Guardini Farchione.
Their vineyards are perched in primo territory, a region known as Tocco da Casauria, which was recently approved as Abruzzo’s second DOCG, the highest quality designation that can be given to an Italian wine region. (The official designation will land on bottles in 2025.)
“Because our vineyards are situated between the sea and the mountains, we get an incredible shift in temperatures between day and night,” Guardiani says. “That locks in fresh flavors. Plus, the continuous breeze we get helps us, and we farm organically. But we are still concerned about the changing climate.”
They’ve focused on changing some winemaking methods. While Cerasuolo is typically made from the Montepulciano grape, which is kept on the skins for up to 15 hours to get some color, they decided to leave it on for three days.
“We wanted even more tannins, structure and color,” Guardiani says. “We named it Mille Papaveri Rossi, which means ‘one million poppies.’ We saw it as a rebirth, and we released it after COVID as a celebration and rebirth.”
They are also planting PIWI grapes. PIWI is a German abbreviation for pilzwiderstandsfähig, which translates to “fungal resistant.” These grapes have been bred to resist common fungi and diseases and require less input and care in a challenging climate.
This feels more necessary than ever in Abruzzo, which lost 60% of its harvest to fungal disease this year.
“I will always make wine using our traditional grapes,” Guardini says. “But we want to plant an acre or two of PIWI grapes as an experiment. We are curious to see how PIWIs do in Abruzzo. We don’t know what the future holds, and we want to be prepared.”
My immediate future holds plenty of Abruzzo wine, made from grapes I find difficult (but fun) to pronounce and spell and effortless to sip. The far future? I’ll let the Farchiones and Pepes figure that part out.