FOUNDED IN 1650, Valentini di Loreto Aprutino is the oldest winery in Abruzzo. The company’s history is full of fascinating and charismatic people. In the 1960s, Edoardo Valentini emerged on the world wine scene as a producer of great Italian wine. A nobleman from Abruzzo, Valentini became an important player in the history of Italian winemaking, thanks to his intelligence and his unordinary character. Only a few wine lovers have had the privilege to visit his cellar and learn about the production methods of this baron of Abruzzo. He has only ever produced three wines: Cerasuolo (Edoardo’s favorite), Montepulciano, and Trebbiano.
His winemaking friends and many enologists who loved his wines asked him what his secret was. Very candidly, he would reply that to make his wines, he had to read the writings on wine found in the ancient pre-Socratic texts of Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Zeno, and Heraclitus. In these texts, the authors, who had a pantheist vision of the world that centered on Mother Earth, described nature as a living being composed of animals, minerals, stars, planets, plants, and even humans. After having read the texts, the enologists and wine producers went back to him to ask for an explanation. He said that his words were meant to be interpreted: The texts describe not a precise recipe for winemaking but rather a vision of the universe as a whole, including the vines, the fields, and the casks for aging wine. Edoardo was quite a personality. For example, Edoardo never showed up for public wine tastings and press conferences, instead always sending his psychiatrist in his place! In the last years of his life—he died in 2006—Edoardo would instead send his son Francesco Paolo, a man of about fifty, tall, aristocratic in the ways of his father, but a farmer through and through.
The Valentini wines have received innumerable awards and are among the most sought after and difficult to find on the market because their limited production does not even come close to the incredibly high demand. In the past decade, only the 2002 and 2006 vintages of Montepulciano have been bottled to date. With minimal intervention in the vine and the cellar, production variability can be high, and Edoardo was very selective. To truly understand the rebellious and anarchic spirit that fills the air in Loreto Aprutino, home to the Valentini cellar, just consider this: The Valentini family owns 160 acres of vineyards, and rather than producing 400,000 bottles, which would be the norm, they produce a maximum of 50,000, and only when it is an excellent vintage. A fun anecdote from the 1970s, when the Valentini wines were still exported to the United States, captures the spirit of Edoardo and Francesco. Someone, possibly an informer, told the American authorities about the anarchic sympathies of the family and the authorities ordered the American importer to write a letter to Edoardo asking him to kindly deny the accusations. So what did Edoardo do? He stopped selling to the States! Even so, the top wine stores and restaurants in America still serve his great Trebbiano; somehow they are able to get their hands on it.
Edoardo was first and foremost a farmer, and so is his son Francesco. Francesco has continued to make wine for two reasons. First, through winemaking he is able to cultivate his yearning and passion for nature, in particular for grapevines and olive trees, and he has the chance to be in direct contact with the kingdom of the plants and that of the animals. He can directly observe and study the changes in the seasons. Second, when immersed in the beating heart of nature, he can stay as far away as possible from so-called modern society.
The Valentini vineyard is a sort of miracle that few agronomists can explain. For decades now, winemakers have been promoting the system of training vines vertically with the cordone speronato technique. However, the Valentinis have continued to arbor their vines, planting them with a density of 490 to 570 plants per acre, keeping them carefully cropped so the bunches can reach optimal ripeness. In this case, contrary to what their malicious and ill-speaking competitors would like to believe, the Valentini family did not choose this method just to be antimainstream: Tendone (a system of training the vines on high, flat trellises) is actually quite suitable for the areas, like theirs, that have a hot climate and little rain. Therefore, the choice was not an act of snobbery, but rather the perfect understanding of the land and use of the proper training system, even if the production costs are higher.
Valentini Trebbiano is a wine that polarizes wine lovers. Some turn their noses up at the imperfections that can sometimes be present in this wine. The Trebbiano has been known to referment in the bottle and develop bubbles. But this is barely a defect: Leave the wine in the glass for a couple of seconds to breathe, and it will recompose itself. The other special characteristic of this wine is its extreme longevity; it is among the only Italian white wines with such a long lifespan. In fact, many of the bottles produced in the 1980s are drinking perfectly.
To describe the Trebbiano, people often compare it with some of the great French wines like a Chablis Premier Cru of excellent vintage, or a Chassagne-Montrachet, or a Corton-Charlemagne. In reality, the Trebbiano di Valentini is unique because of the warm notes that come from the latitude at which the wine is produced. However, the scent can be deceiving, since its freshness and minerality are completely out of the ordinary. When the wine is tasting well, it is without rivals, thanks to its fine, elegant aromas of ginestra (broom), yellow apple, and resin, with underlying notes of flint, rust, and, often, bacon. In the mouth, it has good sapidity, almost like that of a red wine. It is acidic, fresh, and juicy, and quite raw when tasted young. It should be drunk at least four years after the harvest.
SAN MARTINO sulla Marrucina is a small town of about one thousand people located in the heart of the province of Chieti, in southern Abruzzo. To one side of the city rise the large mountains of the Majella range, while to the other is the flat Adriatic Sea, which keeps the area fresh and well ventilated throughout the year. However, the city is known for more than just its enviable climate. First of all, San Martino has been known for more than a century as the paese della polvere, or the “town of powder”—specifically, of gunpowder—because of the number of companies that produce explosives in the area. In more recent history, San Martino has become famous for one name in particular: Masciarelli, an international superstar of Italian wine.
The founder of the company, Gianni Masciarelli, entered the world of wine late, in 1981, but was able to grow both the quantity and the quality of its production like few others in Italy. Based on well-calculated and well-targeted acquisitions, Gianni built a patrimony of 740 acres of vineyards located in all of the principal winemaking zones of the region. He also focused production on the two main grape varieties of Abruzzo: trebbiano and montepulciano. Concurrently, he built a magnificent cellar, outfitted with the most advanced technologies, and converted an ancient castle into the headquarters of the company. And to top it all off, Gianni has provided financial backing to the comune, enabling them to pass an ambitious environmental-protection plan. In 1987, Gianni joined forces (both in life and in work) with Marina Cvetić, an extremely charismatic woman who is directly responsible for the eponymously named line of wines that are among the most important in the portfolio. Keeping in mind the natural rhythms of the earth and of the vineyards, Gianni was able to achieve great success in relatively little time. The region has looked on in amazement as Masciarelli became the beacon of Abruzzo.
Gianni Masciarelli created a modern version of Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, shaped the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo that we think of today, and built up the image of Cerasuolo, or Montepulciano vinified without spending time on the skins to produce a rosé. Masciarelli’s vision, however, extends beyond production: He has created a successful company and a large commercial network. He travels across the globe to build new relationships, open new markets, and introduce his wine and his homeland to a new and larger wine-drinking public. Today, however, we can only describe him with memories and by the fantastic wines he left behind. Sadly, Gianni passed away suddenly on July 31, 2008, at only fifty-two years of age. Up until now, we have intentionally described Gianni as if he were still alive. In Italy, it is a tradition to parlare da vivi—that is, to refer to people who have passed away but have left an important mark on their territory as if they were, and always will be, alive. And this certainly holds true for Gianni Masciarelli, an atypical winemaker, genuine in his progressive political ideas, generous to the point of sacrifice for Abruzzo, and a genius in terms of his intuitions. Today his vision continues to unfold under the direction of Marina, whose ability and inexhaustible strength are testimony to the unshakable high quality of Masciarelli wines.
Like a game of chess, Gianni Masciarelli and Marina Cvetić’s company advanced one step at a time until it finally owned property in every province in Abruzzo, of which there are four: Chieti, Pescara, Teramo, and Aquila. With each move, the company added value to the territory, revitalizing old professions and literally creating new ones. Everything, as always, starts with the vineyard or, in this case, the vineyards: The Masciarelli company is very focused on agronomy and invites visitors and clients into the vineyards to touch the soil with their hands before tasting the resulting wines in the cellar. Masciarelli wines are a perfect mix of modern and traditional elements. The grapes are trained using both the more modern cordone speronato system, characterized by high density (up to 3,600 plants per acre) and the outdated pergola abruzzese system, traditionally used in the region. The soil in the vineyards is composed primarily of calcareous clay and is rich in minerals. In the plots closest to the Majella range, the soil tends to be drier compared with that of the coastal areas. In addition to trebbiano and montepulciano, Gianni Masciarelli, like any good experimentalist, has planted other grape varieties, some of which are rare varieties from Abruzzo, like cococciola, and some of which are international varieties, like chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.
It is not clear where the montepulciano grape comes from, and its name doesn’t help to clarify the situation. Montepulciano is the name of a small Tuscan town, in the province of Siena, famous for its sangiovese-based wine, called Vino Nobile. The grape of Abruzzo may come from Toscana and the area around Siena; however, it is in no way related to sangiovese. One of the most exemplary expressions of the montepulciano is Masciarelli’s Villa Gemma. The grapes come from a vineyard located at 1,300 feet above sea level in the area of San Martino sulla Marrucina. Here, the soil is composed of calcareous clay. The vines are planted at a density of almost 3,600 plants per acre and are trained using the Guyot system. The average age of the vines is sixteen to eighteen years. Harvest occurs at the end of October, after which the grapes are left to ferment for fifteen to twenty days. The maceration takes about a month. Since 1997, the wine is fermented in wood barrels of varying size and is then left to age in new barriques for eighteen to twenty-four months. The wine is then aged for a year in the bottle before it is released to the market.
Villa Gemma is dark ruby red in color with dark blue tones. On the nose, it is dominated by fruity aromas, especially ripe red fruit and elegant spices. The bouquet is complex, penetrating, and very evocative. In the mouth, the wine is concentrated and surprisingly strong, while balanced and elegant at the same time. Villa Gemma wine is soft and round, with notes of vanilla and fruit. It has a noteworthy finish, and the flavor corresponds perfectly to its perfumes.