The standard-bearer of wines from Abruzzo is among the greatest red grape varieties in Italy.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo on its own it represents over 80% of all wines with a guarantee of origin and quality in Abruzzo and is among the first three DOC wines produced in Italy. It can easily be recognised thanks to its inviting and intense ruby red colour, the unmistakable fragrance of red fruits, flowers and spices, and its dry, soft and ideally tannic flavour, which make Montepulciano d'Abruzzo unique.

A number of historical documents demonstrate that the Montepulciano grape variety has been present in the region since the mid-700s and that it has found its place of choice in this region.
In the past it was cultivated in the Peligna Valley, in the province of L'Aquila and on the inland hills in the province of Pescara, while since the 1950s cultivation has been extended to all the hilly area along the coast and today it is the main red grape variety in Abruzzo.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC is obtained uniquely from vineyards located on hills or on plateaux, whose altitude must not be over 500 metres above sea level and exceptionally 600 metres for south-facing ones.; the surface entered in the Register is around 13.700 hectares. The maximum yield for the grapes must not be over 40 quintals per hectare while the minimum alcoholic strength must be 11,5% vol.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is almost exclusively obtained from grapes from the vine bearing the same name, with a possible small addition (max 15%) of other grapes which come from red grape varieties which are suited to being cultivated in the Abruzzo territory.

Montepulciano is a vigorous grape variety and ripens rather late (it usually ripens on average between the first and second decade in October), and can be adapted to different cultivation systems, thanks to its resilience and generosity; it creates wines with highly interesting organoleptic characteristics. It is immediately pleasant if drunk young (from six-eight months up to eighteen months from the grape harvest, as happens for many wines in the economic range), while it proves to be complex and of a superior category if matured for a long time in oak caskets (as is the case for the majority of products in the upper range).

Since the 2006 grape harvest, two sub-denominations of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo have been recognised in the province of Pescara: “Terre dei Vestini”, which has about 1.000 hectares located on the hills both inland and along the coast, and whose production limit is set at 100 quintals per hectar, and the sub-area “Casauria o Terre di Casauria” for the approximately 250 hectars of vineyards which fall within the areas inland and at the foot of the mountains in the South-West, with a production limit set at 95 quintals per hectar.

In both cases, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo's wines which have this additional mention have to be aged for at least 18 months, at least 9 of which in wood, and this becomes at least 30 months (9 of which in wood) for the Riserva version. This mention, which was until now exclusively for the sub-areas, has been extended to the entire red tipology of the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo denomination in the event that ageing/refinement is not below 24 months, at least 9 of which have to be within the production area.

As far as analytical data are concerned, the minimum alcoholic strength by volume for Montepulciano d'Abruzzo put on the market is set at 12% vol (compared to the 11,5% vol. laid out in the production specifications which are still in force). The same value is also laid out for the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC Cerasuolo.