Enology in Abruzzo is an increasingly well established fact.

This is proven by the increase in quality, the interest of critics and of the market and the successes obtained every year in national and international competitions. This is due in particular to wise expoitation of its territory and of its most important native grape varieties, and to a new generation of enologists and winemakers.

With over 36 thousand hectars of vineyards and an annual production of 3,8 million hectolitres, viticulture and winemaking today is undoubtedly the most important sector within the agricultural production in the region.

The production of wines with DOCG, DOC e IGT guarantees of origin and quality reaches a million hectolitres, of which:

• over 800 thousand of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

• 192 thousand of Trebbiano d'Abruzzo

• 4 thousand for the DOCControguerra guarantee of origin and quality

• 4 thousand for the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo “Colline Teramane” which has been in possession of the DOCG guarantee since the 2003 grape harvest.

Productive areas are mainly concentrated within the hilly areas, in particular in the province of Chieti, where 75% of the region's vineyards are to be found, followed by Pescara and Teramo with about 10% each and finally L'Aquila with less than 4%.

Three quarters of the overall production comes from 40 wine cooperatives (there are 32 operating in the province of Chieti) which, together with the private ones, make up an ensemble of 160 transformation firms, 120 of which bottle with their own label. In 2004 the packaged product consisted of over 100 million bottles.

The most widespread form of vine growing is the typical Abruzzo curtain known as pergola abruzzese , which represents over 80% of the region's vineyards. In new implantations and reimplantations, on the other hand, vine growing in rows (cordon trained, free cordon, etc.) is prevalent in the majority of cases.

Apart from the national one, the main benchmark markets for wines from Abruzzo are: Germany (23%), United States (20%) and Canada (10%). There is a strong upward trend in the English market and the Northern European ones such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, as a result of the good value of our products.