I was “along for the ride” with Pino as he headed from L’Aquila to Atessa in southeast Abruzzo to check out a possible restoration project. Along our route, medieval hill towns clinging to forested mountains and here and there, in a field, a crumbling medieval church, needing restoration.
Atessa, Abruzzo hilltop town where Pino might do restoration
Along our route, medieval towns cling to forested mountains
..and here and there, a crumbling medieval church in a field
Sweeping his hand across the burnished orange vineyards along the highways, “This is Abruzzo’s wine country,” Pino said. Due to an unseasonably warm fall, central Italy’s vineyards are still showing off their golds, rusts, and copper colors. With Abruzzo’s mammoth mountains backdropping the vineyards, the landscapes along our route were stunning.
Abruzzo wine country
After Pino wrapped up work, we took the winding road down from Atessa to the highway to L’Aquila. Just off the road, a sign nailed to a tree in front of a small pink building flanked by sheds caught our eye: “Vino, produzione propria” (“Wine, own production”). We pulled over. Pino took the two plastic 5-litre jugs out of the back of his van: in the two years his company has been working on Abruzzo restoration, all of our house wine has become abruzzese. Pino usually buys the wine from a cantina (“cellar”) in L’Aquila but right from the producer was an even better option.
The sign caught our eye: “Vino, produzione propria”
In a cheery pink interior – matching the exterior – demijohns, cartons of wine, a few bottles, and a wine-corker flanked a few huge steel wine barrels… but no one was there. Prices on the barrels of the wine varieties invited tastings: 1. 50 E per litre, 1.30 E and 1 Euro. We called and called and when Pino finally beeped the horn of his truck, a smiling bald man with sunglasses perched on his head came out of the house next door. We’d interrupted vintner Luzio Finoli’s lunch.
A cheery pink interior matches the exterior
A few steel wine casks at the entrance
Vinter Luzio offers us tastes of his wines
He grinned with a shrug when I said, “Scusate!…and you know, we could have left with a good amount of wine” and then offered us tastes of his vino bianco (trebbiano, primarily), the rosato and his red (Montepulciano d’abruzzo grapes). Ah, that pungent earthy red – embodying the stalwart region of Abruzzo, forte e gentile (“strong and gentle”).
Luzio wants us to try his wines, offering tastes of each
We took home both the rosso and the rosato.
Il vino bianco? Maybe our next trip.
Read about our recent wine-making with Peppa
Click here to read about our first grape harvest, 1975
Read more about Peppe and Mandina
Read about Peppa’s wine lore
Click for more on Peppa’s wine and a sacred rural tradition
Read about another rural friend’s wine skills
pete and i travelled down to this region when we were just in italy. it is beautiful there…..we usually look for wine wherever we go, but we didn’t have our wine guide with us and didn’t know where to look in abruzzo….now we know!! but, we still love the sagrantino from umbria the best. last week, we went to a restaurant here in philly and they had paolo bea….i wonder how they found that!!