Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Natum is made by the wonderful Agriverde winery and embodies everything that is brilliant about this superb grape variety. Soft and easy-going in style, but rich and complex with notes of dark cherries, ripe red fruits, plums, spices, almonds and a lengthy mineral finish. It is a cliché, but it does go well with pizza and pasta!
Agriverde has proudly sat in the heart of the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC for almost two hundred years. Located in the town of Caldari in the province of Chieti, the winery was transformed by Giannicola Di Carlo in the mid-1980s with the adoption of Biodynamic farming and Bio-architecture. Today the winery has that magical blend of modernity and traditionalism which radiates through all their wines.
Agriverde was amongst the first Italian wineries to have their vineyards certified organic in the late 1980s. It was a decision based around producing quality grapes rather than a marketing buzz. The vineyards are now teeming with life and produce healthy, quality grapes year in, year out. What amazed us most however, was the winery itself, which was designed and built according to bio-architecture principals. The building seamlessly flows with the landscape from the waves off the Adriatic Sea through to the rolling hills inland. The materials used to build the winery are, as far as possible, all natural, even down to the paints and glues which are eco-friendly.
Production is centred around the red Montepulciano grape, which is not only one of the best varieties for making super tasty, inexpensive wines, but also has the potential to make complex, age-worthy fine wines. It’s a classic for a reason. Although the white grape Trebbiano is widely planted in the region, it is the more unknown Pecorino which produces the more interesting wines with freshness, deep citrus fruit and lovely herb notes.
