I recently split a bottle of affordably priced and very enjoyable Montepulciano ("mohn-tay-pool-chee-AHN-oh duh-BROOTZ-oh) with a couple of friends at an upscale Italian restaurant. It was not the commonly found Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the often very good, if far-too-syllabically-named Tuscan wine. Rather, it was Rosso di Montepulciano, which is basically a younger version of the Vino Nobile. This is analogous to Rosso di Montalcino and Brunello di Montalcino, which are made a hill town or two over from Montepulciano.
If this might be confusing, it helps to keep straight the wines named after the grape, Montepulciano, and the wines names after the town of Montepulciano. The former are led by the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. That name basically means wine made from the native red Montepulciano grape from the largely mountainous Italian region of Abruzzo that is east of Rome and abuts the Adriatic in the center of the country. It is also made in neighboring regions like Marche, Molise and Puglia, though most often as part of the blend.
The Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and its younger version, Rosso di Montepulciano, are made from a close of Sangiovese (the main Chianti grape) known as Prugnolo Gentile. The former are DOCG wines, Italy’s highest classification. The Rosso are DOC, which also denote a certain level of care has been taken.
The wine we had, the Avignonesi Rosso di Montepulciano was a nice wine, good, not great; made for every day consumption with a wide range of foods. It had nice fruit, evident acidity, and a pleasantly long taste. It probably retails for around $12 to $15, too; at the restaurant, about $40.
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