Organic Trebbiano d'Abruzzo at 7.40 euros from the Tollo cooperative, which draws on 2,700 hectares of member vineyard across the Chieti hills. Current vintage 2024.
Tip: A useful reference point: taste it against a grower Trebbiano at three times the price to see what the denomination gives you and what the estate adds.
A Superiore Cerasuolo at eleven euros, listed by the cooperative under its Terre di Chieti line. The Superiore tier asks for more alcohol and more dry extract than the standard wine.
Tip: Cerasuolo is a rosato with its own DOC and its own ageing rules since 2010, not a lighter Montepulciano. Drink it with the region's lamb.
Cagiolo is the cooperative's Riserva, sold at sixteen euros for the 2019. The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva rule asks for two years of ageing, at least nine months of it in wood.
Tip: The shop also lists the 2014 in magnum at forty euros, which is one of the few ways to buy an aged Abruzzo red at a cooperative price.
The house Montepulciano from a family cellar on the Colli Albani hill above Vasto, at 8.90 euros. The Vastese is the southern corner of Abruzzo, on the hills that run down to the Molise border.
Tip: The same estate sells its Trebbiano and Cerasuolo Classico at the identical price, so a three bottle set costs under twenty seven euros.
Pecorino under the Abruzzo DOC created in 2010, at 12.30 euros from the Vasto cellar. Italian Wine Central records 61 percent of Italy's Pecorino plantings in this region.
Tip: Pecorino in Abruzzo is a white grape, nothing to do with the sheep's cheese of the same name. The Nerube line is the estate's step above its Classico bottlings.
Cerasuolo from the Vastese at 12.30 euros. The name comes from cerasa, cherry, and describes the colour rather than the blend, which is Montepulciano at a minimum of 85 percent.
Tip: The estate also bottles a Cerasuolo Classico at 8.90 euros, so this is the one to buy if you want the difference between the two tiers in front of you.
A vintage traditional method sparkling at 21.50 euros from the Vasto estate, which also bottles ancestral method pet nat in white and rosato at 14.50 euros each.
Tip: Traditional method sparkling is not what Abruzzo is known for, which is exactly why it is worth twenty two euros to see what the region does with it.