Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva

The Riserva of the D'Alesio line, the selection the family bottles only in the vintages it judges favourable, from its certified-organic vineyards between the hills of Città Sant'Angelo and the sea, north-west of Pescara.

The producer's sheet gives 100% Montepulciano, hand-picked with a strict selection of bunches and soft-pressed. Maceration and fermentation run in stainless steel for about 7 to 15 days with manual punch-downs. After malolactic the wine moves to 10 hl Slavonian oak casks for 18 to 24 months, then is racked and bottled without filtration and given at least six months in bottle, so it reaches the market three years after harvest. The 2017 ran to 6,550 numbered bottles and was presented in September 2023 among four new labels.

2017 in Abruzzo opened with the April frost. Assoenologi's regional president Nicola Dragani said it spared most Montepulciano and Trebbiano, because a cold winter had put budbreak ten to twelve days behind, leaving the damage to valley floors and early varieties.