A’bruzzo Master Class

When you get into wine, and I mean you become a “wine nerd”, you want to #keepexploring. That’s where I’m at with my wine journey.

Next up for me is A’bruzzo. My wife and I have been drinking Montepulciano di A’bruzzo for a few years. We found the wines and the region as we were drinking through Italy. The wines of the country, not literally, we wish! When you find wines from a country or region that you enjoy, you want to learn more about the place, the wines and producers. And that’s what happened to me.

I was able to attend an A’bruzzo class presented by Jeremy Parzen. Jeremy has been covering and writing about Italian wines for over 20 years. When you have an opportunity to attend one of Jeremy’s classes you learn a ton, while at the same time enjoying the way the content is presented. He makes learning fun!

This region is in central Italy on the east coast. It has a mountain range down through the area and it very close to the Adriatic Sea, combine that with clay and limestone soils, you have a place to make great wine.

The grapes of the region

Montepulciano - Red

Cerasuolo - Red

Trebbiano - White

Pecorino - White

There are more grapes in the region but these four are primary varieties and are what A’bruzzo is known for.

Because of the location of A’bruzzo, there is not a lot of tourism, or there hasn’t been, but that’s about to change. With the quality to price ratio of these wines, with the bigger focus being on the outstanding quality, they are being noticed, and people want to visit where these wines come from.

The producers in A’bruzzo have been focused the last few years on producing outstanding wines. The wines from this region can have a variety of expressions from each of the grapes. Some wines are made to be fresh, fruit forward, and ready to drink and others are complex, structured age worthy wines that would compete with wines from Barolo, Brunello, Burgundy and Bordeaux.

Right now you can get great Montepulciano di A’bruzzo for less than $30. I say right now, because as these wines become more popular (and they will), the price will go up. Montepulciano is the most common grape from the region but definitley search out Cerasuolo, Trebbiano and Pecorino. The best place to look for these wines would be at your local specialty wine shop.