It is not easy to review a Cooperative Winery, especially when producing more than twelve million bottles.
Explaining how a winery with 900 members, rooted in Abruzzo since 1960, manages to offer well-made wines with a good quality/price ratio, including some excellent ones, may seem like a daunting task.
When we talk about Tollo (Chieti), we are talking about wine.
Since Roman times, this territory was known for its winemaking tradition.
Nestled close to the Adriatic on the gentle clay hills that face the sea and lead up to the Maiella massif, whose cool winds ensure a beneficial temperature range for the rows of Montepulciano and Trebbiano.
A territory with a strong vocation, covering 3,500 hectares of vineyards at elevations ranging from 100 to 250 meters, with training systems ranging from the classic Abruzzese tendone to the cordon-spur system.
In addition to Montepulciano and Trebbiano, the rows of the member growers also include the rediscovered Pecorino, Cococciola, Passerina, and alongside these native varieties, Chardonnay.
Cooperative wineries with member growers are numerous in Italy's wine world, but they are found mostly in the north and, apart from the large Romagnan cooperatives, tend to be small – driven by the fragmentation of vineyards that makes individual production economically unviable.
Cantina Tollo, over these 50 years of existence, has managed to combine quantity with quality, guided by the excellent winemaker Brighigna, becoming an ambassador for Abruzzo wines in Italy and around the world.
Members are followed step by step through every phase, from green pruning to grape delivery. Vineyard management is traditional, characterized by minimal intervention to bring healthy, ripe grapes to the cellar, where technology is pushed to its limits but always in respect of the fruit and the desired end product. The results are evident, and international recognition has become a constant in recent years, with the quality-to-price ratio of the wines on offer being truly outstanding. Consider that the flagship wine, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Cagiolo – a regular recipient of 5 grappoli from the AIS guide and tre bicchieri from Gambero Rosso – is sold at the winery for 12/13 euros, and I can assure you it can easily compete with the most prestigious Barolo and Brunello.
But the wine closest to my heart for its extraordinary typicity is the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Aldiano Riserva, Gold Medal winner in May at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and winner at the Sélections Mondiales des Vins in Canada – the largest wine competition in North America, held in the city of Quebec. A true Montepulciano with distinct notes of blackberries, toasting, and spices, and after a year in barrique it can grace our tables at a price of around 7/8 euros.
What more could you ask for?
What do you think?
Log in to leave a comment