Tiberio Colle Vota Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2018

Country: Italy

Region: Abruzzo

Type: Red Wine

Grape: Montepulciano

Winemaker Cristiana Tiberio’s reputation has been on a steady rise, but many years of patient work lie behind the evolution of her family’s estate.  The winery was established in 2000 near the town of Cugnoli in Abruzzo, inspired by an old vineyard discovered by her father, of super-rare, old-vine Trebbiano Abruzzese, a white grape native to the area. These then-70-year-old vines, trained high in a double pergola to withstand the historical impact of snow during winter months, were practically dead, but she and her brother coaxed them back to health over several years — without a single harvest to show for the efforts of their early years.

Tiberio only produces wines from grapes found in their specific sub-zone of Abruzzo. 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. She adds no cover crops to allow the natural grasses that emerge spontaneously beneath specific training systems to thrive, bottles the lees at the end of fermentation to observe their characteristics and how they have adapted to ever-drier conditions, and divides fermentations by specific biotypes. Cristiana's wines are thoughtful and precise, crafted from carefully tended sites, intended to preserve heritage and capture the essence of a place.

Colle Vota is not a “Riserva” but a Single Vineyard Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, transplanted to a higher single vineyard, resulting in a specific biotype uniquely adapted to its microclimate, soils and altitude, uniquely suited to cooler, wetter conditions; hand harvested; fermented using only indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks; malolactic fermentation and aging in tank; bottled unfined and unfiltered; aged in bottle before release. Brilliant light red ruby color. Intense, expressive, highly complex flavors of yellow peach, sage, cedar, cinnamon, marzipan, spices and soil. Long, deep, creamy texture with refined, silky tannins and salinity, and a long finish.