Tenuta Ulisse Amaranta Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2020

Description

Tenuta Ulisse Amaranta Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2020 has arrived in the warehouse and it closely resembles the lovely 2019 vintage – Tenuta Ulisse is passionate about their local grape varieties and aim to produce wines that express the varieties to their best potential. Amaranta Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a deep-coloured red wine, very rounded in texture and mouthfeel with warm spicy and fruit flavours – cherries (similar to Sangiovese) with black plums – and liquorice.  Montepulciano is especially known for its plum fruit flavours, here intensified after being left on the vine as long as possible and after 15 to 20 days’ maceration; the naturally high acidity of the grape allows for over-ripening meaning that the wine has ripe fruit flavours and yet maintains a mouth-watering acidity. The spices come partly from the ageing for 9 to 12 months in oak barriques or barrels as do the tannins though these are not as intense as can be the case with some Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines. In fact they balance beautifully with the fruit, acidity, alcohol and the spice flavours. The wine has a lovely smooth texture and is very easy to drink!

I often visit family in Abruzzo and have tasted many many different Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines – especially as it is common in Italy to find in wine shops and supermarkets very few wines from outside the local region. After so much testing of the local nectar, I can assure you that this lovely example from Tenuta Ulisse, a winery run by brothers Antoino and Luigi Ulisse, is one of the best.

Often confused with Sangiovese, the Montepulciano grape is best known in the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo red wine DOC – and this is not to be confused with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano which is produced from Sangiovese in Tuscany. In fact the two grapes were frequently considered to be the same but it has been proved by DNA testing that that is not the case.