Red Grape · Abruzzo
Italy's great everyday red - dark, soft-tannined and built for the dinner table, not the auction room.
Montepulciano (Mon-teh-pool-chee-ah-noh) is the second most widely planted red grape variety in Italy, after Sangiovese. It is grown all over the peninsula, above all on the Adriatic coast in the central and southern regions. It is also the grape used for one of the most popular Italian wines, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
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Clearing it up
The grape, made along the Adriatic
A place, a town in Tuscany
The anchor fact: Montepulciano the grape is genetically unrelated to Sangiovese, the grape behind Vino Nobile. DNA profiling finally separated the two after a century of confusion.
Taste · Where it sits
Forget scores out of five. Here’s Montepulciano described against grapes you already know.
Weightier than Chianti, a shade less imposing than a young Barolo.
Grippier than Pinot Noir, far gentler than Nebbiolo.
Bright enough to cut through ragu and roast lamb.
Dark, jammy fruit reads almost sweet, but the wine is dry.
Key flavours
The map
Montepulciano is full-bodied, firm tannin, mapped against other red grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and grip resemble Montepulciano.
Is this for you?
Reach for it when…
Maybe skip it if…
Serving guide
Serve at
16-18°C
Cool a touch below room temperature; too warm and the alcohol dominates.
Decant
1 hour
Tight on opening; an hour of air lets the dark fruit unfurl.
Glass
Large Balloon Glass
A wide bowl gathers the blackberry-and-violet aromatics before each sip.
Drink within
3-5 days
Re-corked and chilled, an open bottle holds for several days.
Cellar
Up to 5 years
Most are made for now; Riserva and Colline Teramane reward patience.
On the table
Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.
The home match
Fat and herb-crusted roast pork against soft tannin and dark fruit.
The crowd-pleaser
Abruzzo's flatbread and cured meats echo the wine's savoury side.
The easy win
Egg pasta with a meat ragu; fresh acidity slices through.
Browse every pairing
Buy it · three to start with
A curated trio across the price range, then every Montepulciano on sale in the UK right now.
Entry · everyday
1 retailer
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
1 retailer
£10.04
+ delivery
Why this one: Ten pounds of exactly what the grape does best: dark fruit, soft tannin, no fuss.
The sweet spot
1 retailer
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
1 retailer
£15.20
+ delivery
Why this one: Umani Ronchi's Jorio is the classic step up: riper, deeper and rounder than the everyday bottles, and still under twenty pounds.
Special occasion
1 retailer
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
1 retailer
£59.90
+ delivery
Why this one: Villa Gemma is the wine that proved Montepulciano could be a cellar red: Masciarelli's flagship Riserva, dense, oak-aged and built for a decade.
12 of 153 bottles
5 retailers
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
5 retailers
£22.90
£26.32
+ delivery
3 retailers
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
3 retailers
£12.26
+ delivery
3 retailers
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
3 retailers
£12.90
£13.87
+ delivery
3 retailers
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
3 retailers
£16.95
+ delivery
3 retailers
Rosso di Montepulciano
3 retailers
£17.18
+ delivery
3 retailers
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
3 retailers
£20.80
£22.86
+ delivery
3 retailers
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
3 retailers
£84.58
+ delivery
3 retailers
Marche
3 retailers
£112.63
+ delivery
2 retailers
Biferno
2 retailers
£10.00
£12.00
+ delivery
2 retailers
Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
2 retailers
£12.60
£13.85
+ delivery
2 retailers
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
2 retailers
£13.40
+ delivery
2 retailers
Rosso Piceno/Piceno
2 retailers
£13.40
+ delivery
Denominations
The appellations where Montepulciano plays a starring role.
Where it grows
Abruzzo runs from Gran Sasso to the Adriatic, turning Montepulciano into dark reds, Cerasuolo rosato and a new wave of Pecorino and Trebbiano whites. Read more
From Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio to Conero Montepulciano and Offida Pecorino, Marche covers 5 DOCGs across roughly 16,500 hectares of Adriatic and Apennine Read more
Italy's landlocked green heart, where Montefalco Sagrantino brings the deepest tannins on the peninsula and Orvieto's tufa cliffs ripen the country's most Read more
Italy's quietest wine region: Tintilia rediscovered on Apennine slopes, Montepulciano ripened by Adriatic light, and Biferno reds anchored above the Termoli Read more
The terroir
Montepulciano is a chameleon of altitude. On the warm Adriatic plain it ripens fast into soft everyday reds; in the cooler foothills it holds acidity and tannin for wines built to age.
Producers
18 estates on the site work with Montepulciano. Eight at a time, and the line-up changes every week.
Editorial
Formerly known as Montepulciano Cerasuolo, this wine is labelled today as Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. It comes from a direct pressing of Montepulciano grapes, and it was the first pink DOC in Italy. It is fruity and refreshing, with an appealing cherry-like colour. The name Cerasuolo comes from ‘cherry red’ in Italian.
For a century it was mistaken for Tuscan Sangiovese; only DNA proved the two grapes were entirely unrelated.
The confusion that defined the grapeThis wine shows intense floral and fruity aromas, alongside a remarkable acidity. Its body and soft texture offset that acidity superbly. The best examples come from the north of Abruzzo, at the foot of the Teramo Hills.
Montepulciano Riserva wines are aged in oak barrels or barriques for at least 12 months. They show a bouquet of red fruits, sweet spices and leather.
The grapes are picked after they have raisined. The wines then express aromas of ripe red fruits, spiced with cloves and liquorice. They are velvety and long-lasting, with balanced tannins.
The most accredited theory has Montepulciano starting in Torre de' Passeri or the Peligna basin, in Abruzzo. From there it spread throughout the region in the early 1900s and into southern Marche.
For a long time this grape was confused with Tuscan Sangiovese. Only the vine studies of the 19th century established the difference between the two grapes.
Today Montepulciano is widespread throughout central-southern Italy, above all in the Adriatic regions. It runs from the hills of Rimini to the province of Lecce. Abruzzo is still its main home.
Good to know
Dry. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a dry red. Its ripe blackberry and plum fruit can smell sweet, but the wine finishes dry, with soft tannin. The one exception is a passito, made from grapes dried after picking. That is sweet, and the label says so.
Blackberry, black cherry and plum, with violet, liquorice and sweet spice. Older bottles add leather and tobacco. The wine is full-bodied and very dark, with tannin that is generous but round, and enough freshness to stop it feeling heavy.
Both. Montepulciano is a black grape, on Italy's national grape register since 1970 under the official synonym Cordisco. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the wine made from it: at least 85 per cent by the rules. The Tuscan town of the same name is a different story. Its Vino Nobile is made from Sangiovese.
Mostly along the Adriatic. Abruzzo grows the bulk of Italy's 34,800 hectares and makes Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, the pink Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo and the Colline Teramane DOCG. The Marche use it in Rosso Piceno and Conero, Molise in Biferno, and it runs down through Puglia and across to Lazio.
Most bottles are at their best within five years of the harvest. Colline Teramane DOCG must age a year, and its Riserva three years with one in wood. Those keep for ten or more. Serve at 16 to 18C and give a young bottle an hour in a jug.
Anything with tomato or lamb. Try arrosticini, Abruzzo's skewers of grilled mutton, pasta alla chitarra with ragu, porchetta or a Sunday roast. Its soft tannin copes with spice too, so a mild curry works. Cerasuolo, the pink version, suits fish soup and fried fish.
Under 10 pounds buys an honest everyday bottle. The sweet spot is 12 to 20 pounds, where Umani Ronchi, Cantina Tollo and Zaccagnini sit. The serious single-vineyard and Riserva wines from Masciarelli, Torre dei Beati and Emidio Pepe run 30 to 85 pounds. About half the bottles on sale in the UK cost under 20 pounds.
Primitivo and Nero d'Avola give the same dark fruit and soft tannin at similar prices. Aglianico is the step up in structure and age. Sangiovese is drier and more savoury, whatever the shared name suggests. For the pink Cerasuolo, the closest cousin is a Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Sicily, which is red, not pink, so read the label.
Explore by style
Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.
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