Abruzzo

Located in the northernmost region of Southern Italy and along the Adriatic Sea, the Abruzzo wine region produces more than 42 million cases of wine annually making it the fifth most productive region in Italy, but only about 20% of that is made under DOC designation. The majority of the region's wine is produced by co-operatives or sold in bulk to other wine regions for blending. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo are probably the two most exported DOC wines from the region, particularly to the United States. Although the Montepulciano grape has no known relationship to the Tuscan wine village of Montepulciano, or the Sangiovese grape behind the wnes of Vio Nobile di Montepulciano, it was thought of for a time in the 19th century that the Montepulciano grape and the Sangiovese grape may be related. Whilst this relationship has been proven false, it is still not known how the the dominant grape of Abruzzo took the name of the Renaissance era town. The Appenine mountains run along the Abruzzo's western border and include Corno Grande, the highest point on mainland Italy. The mountain range acts as shield to many storm that come from the east. However, this does leave the area prone to many storms originating from the east which get blocked in a westward progression by the mountains, leading to high levels of precipitation on the vineyards. This was a particular problem in the 1990's vintages, where this occured on several occassions. The Mediterranean climate is moderated by the Adriaic sea for the vineyards that that run along the west-eastern region in calcareous valleys that flow from the mountains to the seas.