Abruzzo just seems to be Italy’s most boring region, from a wine point of view: one dominating red variety and one predominant white, both of which have given rise to one regional DOC, respectively, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. Very simple, you might say, but actually not that boring when you get to taste the wines, especially Montepulciano, where a great number of big producers during the years, have done and still do nice, simple, fruity wines which are suitable as lunch wines with virtually any cuisine.

The ambitions in recent years have grown beyond lunch wine level, and most manufacturers are now testing the possibility of ageing Montepulciano in oak. This has resulted in varying outcomes, but the greater focus on the potential of Montepulciano has also led to the first DOCG in Abruzzo, made in 2003, whose formal name is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane.

In 1996 a DOC, Controguerra, came out but it seems that the innovations on the red wine front will move towards IGT.

This is certainly the case when it comes to the whites. The regional DOC Trebbiano is a highly yielding grape that rarely makes interesting wines, and many of the producers have channeled their experimentation on the rediscovery of the old traditional varieties, among which, for example, Pecorino (and still at an experimental level Passerina) already sets out the path that Abruzzo’s white wine production will take in the years to come.