Abruzzo
Est. 2000 
2 wines 
Tastings
Booking required 
Wine area
Inland Pescara and Peligna valleys
The inland valleys connect Montepulciano to altitude, limestone and cooler nights.
Agricola Tiberio
Agricola Tiberio farms about 74 acres of vines near Cugnoli, in the hills of inland Pescara. It sits at about 350 metres between the Maiella mountains and the Adriatic. Riccardo Tiberio bought the land in 2000 around one old plot of Trebbiano Abruzzese vines. Trebbiano Abruzzese is a real and rare grape, and these old vines are the point of the estate. His children Cristiana and Antonio run it today, in cellar and vineyard. Fonte Canale, its single-vineyard Trebbiano, scored 96 points with Vinous for the 2017.
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About Agricola Tiberio
Riccardo Tiberio was an export manager for an established Abruzzese cantina when he found the plot that started all this. On a hillside above Cugnoli, twenty-three miles inland from Pescara, stood Trebbiano Abruzzese vines around sixty years old. He bought the land in 2000. The old vines covered about 20 acres, and nearly 77 more acres came with them, ready for planting. The first Tiberio wines were bottled in 2004.
That grape is the point of the whole estate. Trebbiano Abruzzese is real and rare. For decades it was confused with Trebbiano Toscano and other lookalikes, which were often planted in its place. Tiberio's old parcels are among the longest-standing in the region.
The vineyards now cover thirty hectares, about 42 football pitches, between 330 and 380 metres up. The soil mixes clay and limestone. Sea air from the Adriatic meets cold currents rolling off the Maiella. Vine ages run from twenty-five to ninety years. A Pecorino vineyard planted in 2000 was one of the first of that grape's modern revival in Abruzzo. New plantings use cuttings from the estate's own oldest vines, not commercial clones.
Antonio and Cristiana Tiberio took over from their father in 2008. Antonio, trained in winegrowing, runs the vineyards. Cristiana is a chemistry graduate. She studied with Jacques Selosse in Champagne, Egon Muller in the Mosel and Nicolas Joly at the Coulee de Serrant. She also learned from producers in Chablis and Australia's Clare Valley. She has been the sole winemaker since 2011. The pair pulled out the international varieties their father had tried and replanted Pecorino and Trebbiano Abruzzese. Winemaking stays deliberately quiet, so each wine moves with its vintage rather than against it.
The cellar makes Trebbiano d'Abruzzo DOP, Pecorino IGP, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo DOP and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOP. Three single-vineyard wines lead the range: Fonte Canale Trebbiano, Colle Vota Pecorino and Archivio, a long-aged Montepulciano. The whites are tense and saline. The reds keep their fruit and stay measured rather than concentrated. Vinous, Decanter, Wine Spectator, Terroir Sense and the New York Times cover the estate regularly. Vinous scored the 2017 Fonte Canale 96 points.
Plate I · ABRUZZO
Agricola Tiberio on the Abruzzo wine atlas
Winery
Agricola Tiberio
Cugnoli, Pescara · Inland Pescara and Peligna valleys
Denominations Produced
Wine areaDOC
Grapes Used
Visit & Experiences
Experiences at Agricola Tiberio
Nothing here can be booked online yet. The experiences below are documented by our editors. The estate's contact details are in Practical info.
Tasting
Estate visit and tasting by appointment
Visits and tastings at Agricola Tiberio in Cugnoli are arranged directly with the estate via the official contacts page. There is no public online booking system.
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What Agricola Tiberio makes
Agricola Tiberio's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Montepulciano and Pecorino.
Key grapes
Common questions
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Agricola Tiberio is in Cugnoli, in the province of Pescara in inland Abruzzo. The hillside sits about 350 metres above sea level, roughly twenty-three miles from the Adriatic coast. The vineyards lie between the Maiella massif and the Gran Sasso, on soils of clay and limestone.
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