Contesa Montepulcian d’Abruzzo Tasting notes:
This wine hails from a sustainable vineyard and offers vibrant aromas of ripe black fruit, with hints of dark chocolate and spicy oak. The palate is rich and generous with abundant bramble and black cherry fruit, and structured tannins are balanced by fresh acidity to give an elegant finish.
Food:
Great paired with roasted/grilled meats, meat boards and pizzas.
Region/Producer:
Produced from a selection of grapes from the best plots of Montepulciano grown on the Contesa estate in Collecorvino, 250m above sea level. The soil is clay / chalk, and harvesting takes place towards the end of October. Maceration on the skins with pumping over for 8-12 days at high temperature (28-30ºC). The wine is then matured in 30hl Slavonian oak barrels for 12 months, with a further 4 months in bottle.
Rocco Pasetti’s superbly sited, 30-hectare estate lies in the heart of the Collecorvino district in the hills northwest of Pescara, recognised as one of the best vineyard zones in Abruzzo.
Surrounding the winery, the south-facing slopes of clay-chalk soils, at around 250m altitude, are ideal for the cultivation of Montepulciano, with Pecorino grown on the lower slopes. The cellar was completed in 2004 – carved into the hillside. Rocco’s son, Franco Pasetti, is also a winemaker and now works alongside him at the estate.
The Contesa wines are impeccably-made expressions of Abruzzo’s local grapes – modern and easy to drink, yet wines of real substance.
Contesa is committed to its sustainability programme and practices an integrated crop management system that is certified under the EU-recognised Sistema Di Qualità Nazionale Di Produzione Integrata (SQNPI) scheme. The Pasetti family is considering a move towards full organic certification.
