Italy just loves its confusing wine names. So! Today, let’s clear up two wines that could throw you: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Are we excited now or what?!
I am, but something about sorting Italy’s perplexing nomenclature peps up the word nerd in me, so…
I will try to make it simple. Many Italian wines are named for their region (like Chianti). Some include the grape in the regional name (like Barbera d’Asti).
And…Montepulciano d’Abruzzo! The grape is Montepulciano, and the region is Abruzzo.
But! Then there is Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the region that…just happens to have the same name as the grape. But it is not made of Montepulciano, not a bit. It is made of a minimum of 70% Sangiovese!
Let’s break it down:
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG = minimum 70% Sangiovese (locally called Prugnolo Gentile) from a region in Tuscany
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC = minimum 85% Montepulciano from a region in Abruzzo (a couple of subcategories require more Montepulciano, but that is the base level).
2017 Canneto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Oooh, those velvety but grabby tannins! Awwww, that herbal/floral AF finish. Potent with a pencil lead edge that calls to mind a Bordeaux; go figure. It is also rife with barely-ripe red fruit–plums–and forest floor. A whiff of balsamic wafts out here and there–it is tart! At 7 years, it is still quite youthful, with refreshing acid counterbalancing all those tannins, lifting it up where they hold it steady.
2019 Binomio Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva Whooo what nose! Rich, ripe, even rainsinated fruit volleys off cedar and almost brown sugar syrup notes. For all the bombast of the nose, the palate rides more elegantly, smooth with exceedingly velvet tannins and brightening medium acid; the fruit is still there, even more in the raisin spectrum, but it’s more craisins than raisins–all that acid and verve. There’s a slight saline thrust throughout it all, likewise giving life. It’s just enough. Earthy through and through, but full of fruit life, stabilized by (what I think is) a slight oak influence.