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Abruzzo introduces Superiore status
Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo has announced new labelling changes for the Italian region’s wines that will be implemented from the 2023 harvest onwards.
The changes have been in the works since 2019, and, after approval from various governing bodies, including the Ministry of Agriculture, have finally come through in time for the upcoming vintage.
Speaking to db at this year’s Vinitaly, the Consorzio’s communications director Davide Accera said: “We want to present the future of our region, because from the next harvest we will have a new DOC status. We are introducing the Superiore for Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC – in fact, not only for Montepulciano, but for all the DOCs of Abruzzo. So from the next harvest, we will have Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Superiore, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Superiore, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Superiore, and Pecorino d’Abruzzo Superiore.”
Passerina d’Abruzzo, Cococciola d’Abruzzo, and Montonico d’Abruzzo will also be subject to this qualitative segmentation.
The Superiore distinction means that the wine is made from fruit sourced from the best plots. These wines will typically have slightly higher alcohol content due to the ripeness of the grapes.
“This is a revolution for us because we can focus on different areas of the region [of Abruzzo]. Whether you are producing Montepulciano from the north of the region, or in the south, by the sea or close to the mountains, the results are very, very different, so we want to present these different results on the label,” Accera explained.
But while Abruzzo’s DOC wine labels will be able to show a greater level of qualitative segmentation, less prestigious Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) status wines will undergo a major simplification, as the current eight IGT designations are to be replaced by one, ‘Terre d’Abruzzo’.
In a press release, Consorzio president Alessandro Nicodemi explained that the introduction of the Terre d’Abruzzo IGT “…creates a strong regional image, compensating for the current fuzzily-defined fragmentation.”