To Find Great Values in Italian Wine, Look to Abruzzo

The Abruzzo region of eastern central Italy, on the Adriatic coast, is home to Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a popular red wine that paradoxically has been historically little known and rarely very good.

Its popularity owed to one main factor: It was a cheap wine that was usually good enough.

The last decade in the region, though, has seen a sea change. With the arrival of a new generation of ambitious growers and winemakers dedicated to conscientious farming and meticulous winemaking, Abruzzo’s wine scene is exciting, and not just for its reds. Abruzzo is making some of the best whites in Italy, and its Cerasuolos d’Abruzzo, rosés dark enough to be light reds, are singular. Prices, with a few important exceptions, are still reasonable.

This new wave includes small family producers like Tiberio in Cugnoli, Cirelli Wines near Atri, De Fermo in Loreto Aprutino, Colle Florido in Pianella and Antica Tenuta Pietramore in Controguerra.

These estates are relatively new and differ in philosophies and styles. Yet all are idealistic and share a goal of making wines that are not only delicious but true to the heritage and identity of their part of Abruzzo, a proud but undervalued region of stunning beauty, great food and welcoming people.

Abruzzo is long and narrow, influenced both by the sea and the mountains. The Adriatic is to the east. To the west, separating Abruzzo from Lazio and Rome, is the snow-capped Gran Sasso, a massif that is part of the Apennine range and rises to almost 10,000 feet.