Valentini

The Valentini estate has a long history stretching back to the 1600s. Along with Emidio Pepe, it is the standard-bearer for Abruzzo – an iconic producer that proves what is possible in the region. Although wine was historically made here, Edoardo Valentini was the first in his family to focus on winemaking, abandoning his career as a lawyer to start making wine in the 1950s, with his first vintage 1956. He was a character and his staunch dedication to traditional methods, refusal to discuss his techniques and choice to shun the media have only added to the wines’ appeal – creating a certain mystique that, combined with the quality of the wines, has given the estate mythical status. Edoardo passed away in 2006 and his son Francesco Paolo Valentini took over, working with his wife Elena and son Gabriele. Francesco Paolo has continued his father’s legacy – and keeps the property’s methodology similarly quiet. Although – given this approach – information is sparse, the winemaking is firmly traditional and low-intervention, with spontaneous ferments in cement followed by maturation in old oak, minimal sulphur additions and the wines unfined/unfiltered. The estate consists of circa 60 hectares, split between olive groves and vineyards, on sandy, calcareous, clay soils close to the Adriatic Sea, near the village of Loreto Aprutino. Despite the property’s relatively large size, only a tiny proportion of the fruit is used for the wines – with roughly 10% meeting the stringent quality criteria and making it into bottle, with the rest sold off to the local co-op. Indeed, the wines are only made when the vintage is good enough – meaning sometimes all the fruit is sacrificed and no wine is produced under the Valentini name. The property is best known for its Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, made with the Trebbiano d’Abruzzese clone (rather than the more common Trebbiano Toscano), producing a complex, age-worthy white of incredible depth. Alongside this, tiny volumes of a Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo rosé (rosato) are made, and a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo which is made relatively rarely. In the 21st century, it has been made and released from the 2001, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017 (to date, in 2024). The wines are only released when deemed ready to drink, meaning they do not necessarily follow the vintage order. In 2013, the property lost a swathe of vines – their traditional trellising system (tendone) suffering in a major snowstorm, with many vines breaking under the weight of the snowfall. Reportedly half of their vineyard was damaged, including many vines over half a century in age – putting further pressure on the already small volumes produced.