Scarpone Pecorino d'Abruzzo
Scarpone Pecorino d'Abruzzo

Scarpone Pecorino d'Abruzzo

Abruzzo, Italy 2020 (750mL)
Regular price$26.00
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Scarpone Pecorino d'Abruzzo

One of Italy’s most famous (and widely planted) white grape varieties is Trebbiano. It is the signature white variety of the Abruzzo region, and while there are a few internationally recognized wines from the grape, there’s another variety many locals believe is superior: Pecorino. Not to be confused with sheep’s milk cheese, Pecorino is a white grape which, like a lot of the most “noble” native varieties, fell out of favor in the 20th century as farmers sought more productive cultivars. It produces a more structured, substantial white than Trebbiano, with a combination of extract and acidity reminiscent of Chardonnay. 


Pecorino grows in several regions of central/southern Italy, but its best expressions are from northern Abruzzo/southern Marche, in the shadow of the Gran Sasso (the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains). Scarpone’s expression hails from two small vineyards in the villages of Notaresco and Arsita, in northern Abruzzo’s Teramo province. An interplay of mountain- and Adriatic-born currents helps preserve freshness and lengthen the growing season in these foothill vineyards, which are rooted in soils of clay and limestone.


San Francisco-based wine and food importer Lorenzo Scarpone, a native of Abruzzo, began producing wines from his family’s farm in Notaresco, adding it to his import portfolio (Villa Italia Wines). A onetime Bay Area sommelier and restaurateur who is also active in organizing events for the international SlowFood movement, Scarpone sources his Pecorino from a grower in Notaresco with old-vine plantings of the variety.


The hand-harvested fruit for the 2020 was direct-pressed to stainless steel tank for fermentation and aged for six months in terra cotta amphorae before bottling. It spent about six months resting in bottle before its initial release. Whereas some producers opt for a brief maceration of Pecorino on its skins during primary fermentation, Scarpone eschews the practice in favor of a juicier, brighter style. The wine displays a bright yellow-gold hue in the glass, with delicate aromas of yellow apple, pear, green herbs, fresh cheese, and wet stones. It leans toward medium-plus in body, with Pecorino’s naturally high acidity tempered by some nice fleshy extract.

Scarpone Pecorino d'Abruzzo
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Italy

Northwestern Italy

Piedmont

Italy’s Piedmont region is really a wine “nation”unto itself, producing world-class renditions of every type of wine imaginable: red, white, sparkling, sweet...you name it! However, many wine lovers fixate on the region’s most famous appellations—Barolo and Barbaresco—and the inimitable native red that powers these wines:Nebbiolo.

Tuscany

Chianti

The area known as “Chianti” covers a major chunk of Central Tuscany, from Pisa to Florence to Siena to Arezzo—and beyond. Any wine with “Chianti” in its name is going to contain somewhere between 70% to 100% Sangiovese, and there are eight geographically specific sub-regions under the broader Chianti umbrella.

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