Colline Teramane (Teramo province)

The hills of Teramo province rise from the Adriatic toward the Gran Sasso, and the vineyards between them grow Abruzzo's most structured Montepulciano. Cold mountain air drains across the vines at night while the coast keeps the days warm, and that daily swing holds acidity in a grape that ripens soft on warmer flatland. The soils are limestone and clay. In 2003 this corner became Colline Teramane, the region's first and only DOCG, separated from the wider Montepulciano d'Abruzzo appellation it sits inside.

Stricter on purpose

The DOCG asks more of a bottle than the regional rules do. The wine must be at least ninety per cent Montepulciano, with Sangiovese allowed for the remainder. Yields are capped about a third lower, and release waits two years, one of them in oak or chestnut casks plus six months in bottle; a Riserva waits three. The wines come out recognisably darker and firmer than everyday Montepulciano, with black cherry, plum, a mineral edge and tannin suited to the local table of grilled lamb and aged pecorino.

The cellars that prove it

Emidio Pepe has farmed at Torano Nuovo since 1964, treading grapes by foot and ageing the wines for decades; the estate precedes the DOCG by nearly forty years. Fattoria Nicodemi works the hills at Notaresco. Among producers profiled on this site, Azienda Agricola Cirelli farms biodynamically near Atri, eight kilometres from the sea, and ferments Montepulciano in amphora, while Tenuta Antonini at Ancarano bottles the appellation as Corium.