Wine in Casauria, Abruzzo

Chiusa Grande ★ 4.2

Nocciano estate in the hills between the Pescara valley and the Majella, with its own cellar at Contrada Casali and a tasting room listed on the estate site.

Rosarubra ★ 4.3

Pietranico estate of about 30 hectares that describes its own farming as organic and biodynamic, with an art and wellness programme alongside the cellar.

Tenuta Secolo IX ★ 4.3

Castiglione a Casauria cellar inside the zone that became the Casauria DOCG in November 2025, trading as Quarantasei Srl and working Montepulciano and Pecorino.

Valle Reale ★ 4.5

Popoli estate inside the Majella national park, started in 1999 and farming 38 hectares across separate sites at San Calisto, Capestrano and Sant'Eusanio.

Cantina Zaccagnini ★ 4.2

Bolognano winery founded in 1978 and farming 500 hectares per DoctorWine, known for the vine shoot tied to the neck of its bottles and for the art in its grounds.

Tasting: Visits and tastings booked through the estate, with a sculpture collection in the grounds

Valle Reale Tasting Room ★ 4.6

Tasting at the mountain estate between the Maiella and Gran Sasso parks, with the San Calisto vineyard visible from the table.

Tip: Combine it with a night in the estate guest house, which is a few steps from the cellar door.

Podere Castorani Tasting Room ★ 4.1

Alanno estate in the Pescara valley pouring two tiers, the entry Cadetto range and the Amorino selection, by reservation.

Tip: Book the Amorino flight if you want the estate's older Montepulciano bottlings rather than the entry range.

Majellando ★ 4.2

Outdoor operator based under the Maiella that runs the electric-bike ride from the Feudo Antico cellar at Tollo down to the coast and back.

Tip: Riders must be 18 or over; the route is about 20 km each way with the climb assisted.

Liquori Toro, Enrico Toro Distilleria Casauria ★ 4.6

The Tocco da Casauria house behind Centerba, the herb liqueur a local pharmacist named Beniamino Toro first distilled in the town.

Tip: Centerba Forte runs at high strength and is drunk in drops or mixed; the 55 and Esprit bottlings are the gentler route in.

Foresteria San Calisto, Camere con Vigna ★ 4.5

Valle Reale's guest house at Popoli, set among the estate's mountain vineyards between the Maiella and Gran Sasso parks.

Tip: The estate began here in 1999, so the house sits inside the vineyard rather than beside it.

Art in the Cellar at Cantina Zaccagnini ★ 4.1

Zaccagnini hangs contemporary work through its Bolognano cellars and adds to it each November with Uvarte, when invited artists respond to the harvest.

Tip: Visits are by reservation only; November is when the new Uvarte pieces go up.

Rosarubra ★ 4.3

A Pietranico estate of about 30 hectares in the Casauria corridor, farming organically and biodynamically, with an art and wellness programme running beside the cellar.

Why locals love it: Pietranico is a hill village almost no visitor route passes, yet the estate farms 30 hectares organically and biodynamically with an art programme attached.

Tip: Ring ahead. The wellness and art side of the estate runs alongside the cellar, so a visit can take most of an afternoon rather than an hour.

Tenuta Secolo IX ★ 4.3

A Castiglione a Casauria cellar working Montepulciano and Pecorino, inside the zone promoted to the Casauria DOCG in 2025. Trades as Quarantasei Srl.

Why locals love it: The cellar sits inside the zone that became the Casauria DOCG in 2025, a mile from the Abbazia di San Clemente, and it is still far less visited than the abbey above it.

Tip: Combine it with the Abbazia di San Clemente a Casauria, founded in 871 and a few minutes away on the same road out of Castiglione.

Chiusa Grande ★ 4.2

A Nocciano estate between the Pescara valley and the Majella, organic since the early 1990s under AIAB, with five wines made without added sulphites.

Why locals love it: Franco D'Eusanio has bottled wines with no added sulphites at Nocciano since long before the category had a name, and holds AIAB rather than plain organic certification.

Tip: Ask for the five bottlings made with nothing added, held under the 10 mg per litre threshold at which sulphites count as legally absent.

Abbazia di San Clemente a Casauria ★ 4.6

The abbey that gave the Casauria DOCG its name, founded in 871 by Louis II, rebuilt by abbot Grimoald and reconsecrated in 1105. The bronze doors date from 1191 and the paschal candelabrum survives inside.

Pours: Casauria DOCG Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Abruzzo Pecorino

Tip: Tenuta Secolo IX is in the same comune, so the abbey and the DOCG promoted in 2025 make one short morning on the same stretch of the Pescara valley.

Cantina Zaccagnini ★ 4.2

A Bolognano winery in the Casauria corridor, known for the vine shoot tied to the neck of its bottles and for the contemporary art placed through its grounds.

The list: Booked visits and tastings at a Bolognano winery founded in 1978, with a sculpture collection in the grounds.

Tip: The art walk is the reason to come at the end of the day rather than the middle. Book the visit rather than turning up at the gate.

Rosarubra ★ 4.3

A Pietranico estate of about 30 hectares that describes its own farming as organic and biodynamic, in the hills of the Casauria corridor below the Majella.

Tip: The estate does not name a biodynamic certifier, so treat it as practising rather than certified. The art and wellness programme runs alongside the cellar.

Valle Reale ★ 4.5

Valle Reale states that more than half of its 46 hectares are certified organic with the remainder in conversion, on a plateau at 350 metres around Popoli and Capestrano.

Tip: The named parcels are Sant'Eusanio, San Calisto, Popoli, Capestrano and Convento, and the Capestrano fruit comes from the warmer Piana di Ofena.

Chiusa Grande ★ 4.3

A Nocciano estate certified by AIAB, which sets tighter sulphite limits than the plain organic rule, and bottling five wines with no added sulphites at all.

Tip: Those five are held under 10 mg per litre, the threshold at which sulphites count as legally absent. Franco D'Eusanio founded the brand in 1991.