SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch is back to talk Montepulciano—the grape from Abruzzo, not the place in Tuscany—and the joy it brings to any table.
Sometimes I can’t help but anthropomorphize wine and grapes (you know, give them human characteristics as a means of description). I think of Pinot Noir as an elegant, slightly imperious French actress. Cabernet Sauvignon is the handsome, square-jawed captain of the football team. Nebbiolo is the polemical, tweedy intellectual. And Montepulciano, the softly contoured red grape of Italy’s Abruzzo region, is the gregarious, kind-hearted dude that gets along with everyone. This 2015 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Francesco Cirelli has a terrifically sunny disposition. Drinking it puts a smile on my face, because it is so clearly a real wine, not a confection, and it costs just $20. It is a medium-weight, brightly fruit-forward, well-balanced, un-oaked red that’s straightforwardly delicious—the kind of easy-drinking wine I can imagine the Cirelli vineyard workers sipping during an al fresco lunch.
You may still think of Montepulciano in somewhat generic terms—as a fairly innocuous ‘table wine’ at a 1970s-era Italian-American trattoria—or confuse it with Montepulciano the town, in Tuscany (where they grow Sangiovese). Montepulciano the grape is, along with dried pasta, a signature of the more southerly region of Abruzzo (lately rocked mercilessly by a succession of earthquakes). I’ve often compared Montepulciano to another get-along grape, Merlot: satisfyingly deep color, juicy fruit, velvety tannins, moderate acidity…you get the idea. And, as with Merlot, I like Montepulciano wines much better when they’re more modestly proportioned; when there’s enough acid, as there is here, to counterbalance the deep, plummy fruit, Montepulciano is immensely satisfying.
On further reflection, an even better analog for Cirelli’s 2015 is cru Beaujolais. We’ve offered quite a few of the latter recently and this wine is right up there with them—lively, pure, deeply fruited, and blessed with a refreshing acidic crunch. It’s like eating berries off a bush.
It’s also a real-deal certified organic wine, from a small farm where vines share space with olive groves, fig trees, wheat, and barley. Francesco Cirelli acquired the property in 2003 and has been a passionate devotee of organic viticulture and natural winemaking (free-range geese handle the weeding of the vineyards). He describes himself as being raised in a “well-off” family that had, in the course of becoming well-off, lost its connection to the land. Agricola Cirelli is all about re-establishing that connection.
Although Cirelli is also experimenting with terra cotta amphorae, this wine was fermented and aged in stainless steel. In the glass it is a deep ruby red with youthful purple reflections at the rim, and the aromatics are an exuberant mix of black raspberry, plum, pomegranate, maraschino cherry, wet violets and other floral notes. Medium-bodied and silky smooth, it is a drink-now style made even more delicious when served with a slight chill. Serve it around 50 degrees in Burgundy stems and pair it with something southern Italian—its soft tannins and moderate alcohol make it a good choice for spicier preparations, including the quintessential Abruzzese pasta,
spaghetti alla chitarra. No one does it better than my man Mario Batali, who I think would endorse this pairing wholeheartedly.
— David Lynch
