Tiberio Montepuliciano d’Abruzzo DOP 2022

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

From two vineyards totalling 15 hectares planted in the 1960s, trained to pergola Abruzzese, and 2000, to guyot, in clay-limestone soils at 350 metres. Spontaneously fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel. Spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Aged in stainless steel and a few months in bottle before release. Unfined, unfiltered.

About Tiberio

“We are focused, extremely focused – I would like to say obsessed – with the native grape varieties. I want to be more precise: not just the native grape varieties, but the real native aspects of these varieties. We are in a cool area, and for us it’s very important to respect the vines and the fruit which are native to this geology and these climatic conditions, through massale selection. Any decision I make for my soil, my vineyards, or my wine depends on the respect of our heritage, identity, and character of our terroir.”

Cristiana Tiberio

Cristiana and Antonio Tiberio have had a brisk rise to superstardom, but careful study and decades of patient work lie behind the evolution of the family’s estate. Inspired by a very old vineyard of Trebbiano Abruzzese (the highest quality, extremely rare form of Trebbiano), Tiberio was established in 2000 near the town of Cugnoli. The vines were 70 years old and practically dead at the time, yet team Tiberio coaxed them back to health. Today, that tiny pergola-grown vineyard produces one of Italy’s finest white wines, Fonte Canale. It is a chiseled, crystalline wine with an immense capacity to age. It is also produced without oak making it the best representation of Trebbiano d’Abruzzo that there is. As well as their mastery of this special cultivar, Tiberio is recognised as “…the undisputed quality leader when it comes to making Pecorino…” while their four Montepulciano wines rank amongst the finest in the region.

Tiberio only produces wines from massale selected vines of local genetics found in their specific sub-zone of Pescara province and Cristiana, a trained chemist, is deeply passionate about the hyper-local, attributing the success of her wines to years of careful observation, discovering the distinctive characteristics of their site, vines and environment. The results of this work are spectacular. These are deeply thoughtful, pure and precisely made wines, Tiberio is at the cutting edge of fine wine in Italy.

In the Vineyard

Our vineyards, planted on calcareous, mixed limestone and clay soils, come from massal selections of ancient native varieties of Trebbiano Abruzzese, Pecorino and Montepulciano. Our vineyards sits on 30 hectares (74.13 acres) enjoy a peculiar microclimate with a pleasant sea breeze coming from the Adriatic coast and cold mountain currents coming from the Maiella massif.

The age of the vineyards varies between 25 and 90 years: our Trebbiano Abruzzese vines are amongst the oldest in Abruzzo, and also our Pecorino vines, planted in 2000, represents one of the oldest plants in the region.

Trebbiano Abruzzese

Our Trebbiano Abruzzese vines are especially noteworthy as they are not just amongst the oldest in Abruzzo but because they are the real thing. True Trebbiano Abruzzese is rare; much of Abruzzo’s vineyards are actually planted to Bombino Bianco, Mostosa, and Trebbiano Toscano which were until very recently routinely confused with Trebbiano Abruzzese. However, while the four share similar features they are distinct varieties. Trebbiano Abruzzese is the most noble of the four, producing wines that while delicate and light bodied have greater depth and complexity.

Massal selections

All our vineyards are planted with our massal selections, old vines we selected within our property and then propagated in order to ensure we have plants that help us save the historical, typical, genetic heritage of the grape varieties growing on our land. We practice sustainable farming methods. We dry farm, because we want our massal selections to adapt to our soil and subsoil, climate, and the varied availability of water in order to guarantee very terroir-driven vines and grapes expressing a deep sense of the place.

Biodiversity

We believe in the importance of the presence of multiple crops and their biodiversity in the vineyards, so as to preserve, nurture and promote our ecosystem. For this reason, in our property (besides the 30 hectares of vineyards) we also take care of three hectares of forest and another three hectares of alfa-alfa, olives trees and of spontaneously growing local herbs. These spontaneous cover crops help us maintain and foster the health of our natural environment and of our soils and subsoils.
In fact, this has allowed us, after decades of practicing such agriculture, to revive and recover some typical herbs of the area such as melilotus, marigold, mauve, and licorice roots, all of which had once disappeared from the area.
We do not use any pesticides or herbicides in our vineyards and we do not use any plastic in our vineyard operations (for example, we tie our vine branches to poles or metal wires only with rafia or willow branches). This approach has greatly increased the populations in our vineyards of earthworms that are native to this terroir, but also the numbers of friendly, desirable insects such as ladybugs, butterflies, praying mantis, green lacewings and others still. At Tiberio, we try very hard to strengthen these native populations by ensuring the presence of multiple crops that are typical of and traditional to the area, and never add purchased populations of insects available commercially that might have been raised or caught in other, distant, and altogether different environments than ours.

In the Winery

The vinification, élévage and aging of each of our wines are carried out with the utmost care and out of immense respect for the vintage, our terroir and our original and historic wine grape biotypes.

Our aim is to express in each bottle we produce variety-accurate, true to type, aromas and flavours of our specific wine grapes, our soils, and microclimates in keeping with the vintage’s characteristics.

For this reason, our wines will vary slightly in their organoleptic profiles from year to year, as we do not follow standard winemaking recipes or force our grapes and our terroirs to give something they cannot.

Our wines are the result of our work in the vineyards, our ecosystem, and our soils, and we firmly believe the wines are made in the vineyards. Winemaking continues in the cellar all the work we carry out in the vineyard; in this light, we consider the winery not just a building but part of our terroir. Our winemaking is very gentle, respectful, and delicate, allowing our wines to broadcast the traditional traits of our massal selections and their old vine fruit enriched by the specific infuences of each vintage.

And so, long natural fermentations with indigenous yeasts and stainless-steel tanks only are used so as to not camouflage the specific characteristics of our grape varieties and how these are expressed by our habitats.

Vinification

We love to work with stainless steel, for fermentation and élévage. After having experimented with several different fermentations materials over the years, we found that stainless steel is able to better preserve the characters of our fruit and their distinctive aspects more than other materials. In short, stainless steel is the medium that is best able to represent and bring forward the unique identity of our massal selections, with no interferences. At the same time, we work with spontaneous fermentations using natural yeasts. Also, because of the natural, low, pH of our white wines and of our Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, we do not carry out malolactic fermentation. No press juice is ever used, only the free run juice, such that we bottle only the cleanest and best part of our musts. A long, peaceful stay in the cellar then allows the wines to be bottled without any fining.

The result is fresh, elegant wines showcasing a very precise and pure identity that is strongly linked to our territory and the habitat the grapes grow in.

Where in the World is Tiberio?

Tiberio is located in the town of Cugnoli in Abruzzo, Italy.