Abruzzo Weathers the Storm: Surviving the 2023 and 2024 Vintages

BY ERIC GUIDO | MAY 8, 2025

Quality to price ratio secures Abruzzo as my go-to under-the-radar wine region in Italy. Twenty years ago, consumers looked to Chianti Classico to source the perfect $15 to $20 wine that would over-deliver on an average night yet also offer enough complexity for short- to medium-term aging. Readers have many more options today. Montepulciano, Trebbiano, Pecorino and Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo all fill that niche nicely. While making delicious wines at entry-level price points, winemakers are simultaneously raising the stakes with prestige labels and single vineyard-designates. Despite significant hardships over the last two years, the forward momentum in Abruzzo is undeniable.

A Tale of Two Vintages

The 2023 vintage marked a period of sweeping changes and challenges. To begin, adjustments to the DOC took effect, allowing for the use of new Superiore and Riserva classifications. Usage of Superiore and Riserva requires not only that the wines age longer in the winery (four to five months for Superiore and 24 months, including 6 months in barrel, for Riserva), but also that 100% of the fruit comes from one of four subzones: Colline Teramane (Teramo province) in the north, Colline Pescaresi (Pescara province), a large area in the region's center, Terre de L'Aquila (L’Aquila province) in the west, and Terre di Chieti (Chieti province) around Chieti and the hills that once formed the Colline Teatine IGT. Regulations also stipulate that wines must be vinified and bottled within Abruzzo, a measure introduced to differentiate these new top classifications from the oceans of wine that that are bottled outside Abruzzo by large bottlers. It’s important to note that the Controguerra, Villamagna and Ortona DOCs follow the same guidelines.

A selection of Montepulciano from around Abruzzo. 

Abruzzo struggled for many years with wines produced in bulk outside of the region from purchased fruit. These low-priced, inferior wines littered supermarket and retail shelves but still carried the Abruzzo DOC classification, thereby competing with artisanal wines of superior craftsmanship. That is no longer the case. What’s more, to simplify things for consumers, the Consorzio di Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo gained approval to remove the eight territorial IGTs throughout Abruzzo and replace them with the new Terre d’Abruzzo IGT. These are all positive changes geared at inspiring growers to raise standards and sell their fruit within the region, while also separating higher-quality Abruzzo wines from bulk wines in the market. 

Unfortunately, while these changes went into effect, Abruzzo, like much of Italy, suffered through a climatic rollercoaster of a year, the likes of which they had never seen before. Abruzzo received the worst of it. I detailed the challenges of the 2023 growing season in last year's report. Readers many want to revisit that article for all the details. To summarize for context, Abruzzo suffered through rain and overcast skies for an entire three-month period during the spring, causing an outbreak of Peronospora (downy mildew). Many wineries in Abruzzo are organic and depend upon spray treatments, but in 2023, these washed off the vines as soon as they were applied. This caused many wineries to lose 70-80% of their production, especially in coastal areas.

Own-rooted Montepulciano vines in the Tiberio vineyards, which are used to make the Archivio.

To make matters worse, the following summer was arid and warm, causing many vines to go into hydric stress and slowing the ripening process. By the time harvest arrived, the remaining bunches on the vines often displayed uneven ripeness, meaning that severe selection was necessary to identify healthy grapes. Many wineries lost their entire production for the year, while others chose to make only Cerasuolo or purchase fruit from larger industrial vineyards that succeeded through chemical applications. 

This year, I witnessed the impact of the 2023 vintage during my tastings. Several producers have since stopped using organic practices, stating that they intend to be as natural as possible but can’t risk losing another crop. The hilly and mountainous interior of Abruzzo was a silver lining, as its windy conditions and well-draining soils limited the impact of Peronospora. However, in the end, the 2023 vintage will live in infamy. In most cases, the wines are linear and wiry, aromatically perfumed yet lacking depth and concentration. I don’t expect most of them to be long-lived, yet they can generally be enjoyable in the short term. Ultimately, the 2023s offer a change of pace, contrasting with the darker, more brooding Montepulcianos of recent vintages.

Modified pergola vine-training at Valle Reale in the Peligna Valley.

With that said, there are several success stories. At Emidio Pepe, gentle winemaking, hands-on approach, and neutral aging in cement yielded perfumed and elegant wines that lean into the vintage style, coming across with old-school charm. Following these wines through the coming years will be very interesting, as they possess a unique acid-to-fruit balance that I find compelling. As for Tiberio, their white wines achieved a level of depth and mineral intensity seldom seen in the region, accented by beguiling floral characteristics that tempt the imagination. The Trebbiano Fonte Canale (still a year away from release) left me in awe. I can say the same for Torre dei Beati’s Trebbiano and Pecorino, both highly successful whites, despite coming from vineyards closer to the coast. I also tasted the 2023 reds from barrel with Proprietor/Winemaker Fausto Albanesi, and I found the young wines to possess texture and depth of fruit atypical of the vintage. Another standout came from Cirelli. Their 2023 Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, produced in amphora, is one of the most unique yet pleasing wines I’ve tasted at this address. Ultimately, 2023 yielded some excellent wines, but they are the exception, not the rule. 

Fausto Albanesi of Torre dei Beati in his Loreto Aprutino. A standout from the 2023 vintage. 

And so, winemakers left the 2023 vintage licking their wounds and looking to the future, but they were not out of the woods. 

The word "depressing" comes to mind while reflecting on my visit to Abruzzo in July 2024. I arrived in Cugnoli to witness something I had never seen before. Typically, I would see green in every direction. Pergola-trained vineyards usually resemble jungles, bright and vibrant on top, with shaded fruit and moist soils beneath. But in 2024, despite being the middle of July, the vineyards looked sickly and battered. Canopies were shrunken and distorted, and the bunches were tiny with shriveled grapes. Montepulciano and Trebbiano vines resembled over-trimmed bonsai trees. Large cracks in the soil ran throughout the vineyards like a stream cutting through a valley, releasing much-needed humidity from the earth. As for winemakers, they seemed tired and worn to the bone, their spirits low. No one had ever experienced a drought of this magnitude. The thought of losing another vintage following what occurred in 2023 took its toll. At that time, several winemakers explained that even if the season took a complete turn for the better, the damage to the vines had already been done. There wouldn’t be much, if any, Montepulciano harvested to make red wines.

The Case Pepe vineyard in Teramo during the 2024 drought.

How did this happen? 

The lack of snow in winter set the stage for the 2024 vintage. Abruzzo depends on significant snowfall accumulating in the mountains, slowly melting, filling streams and rivers that run down toward the Adriatic Sea and replenishing water supplies. Most producers don’t have irrigation, and those that do only use it in cases of emergency. In previous years, rain in spring helped to compensate for insufficient winter snowfall, but not in 2024. Throughout the entire interior and most coastal regions, Abruzzo suffered drought conditions from spring through August. Moreover, following budding, a frost moved through areas such as Cugnoli, Loreto Aprutino and the Peligna Valley in late April, halting sap flow in the vines. This created a perfect storm where vines shut down due to the frost and didn’t restart because of the drought conditions. Rain finally arrived late in the season yet still only amounted to 50% of annual averages.

Camillo Montori, the man behind the creation of the Colline Teramane DOCG, in his Montepulciano vineyards.

In contrast to 2023, the coastal areas of Abruzzo fared better in 2024. The combination of warming influences from the sea and scattered rain events through the season allowed vines to escape the effects of frost while still dealing with a hot vintage and drought conditions that resulted in uneven ripening. The health of the bunches, due to lack of humidity, was the only upside.

In the end, expect reduced quantities across the board. Many wineries from Abruzzo’s interior will not bottle any Montepulciano and have instead used their entire red grape production to make Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. Most of the 2024 wines I tasted are ripe with elevated acidity and lack complexity and depth. Readers will also notice a lag in new releases as winemakers stretch their inventory of 2022s and 2023s to make up for the lack of 2024s in the market. 

It's not Rosé, it's Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, and it's one of the highlights of the 2023 and 2024 vintages.

Success in 2024 depended on the willingness to sacrifice. Chiara De Iulis Pepe of Emidio Pepe described 2024 as the estate’s longest harvest season on record in an attempt to achieve balanced ripeness throughout their vineyards, along with “forty days of hand sorting” to find the best berries. Ultimately, those berries had extremely thick skins and less than half the average amount of juice, meaning that a heavy hand in the winemaking process could further exacerbate the situation. This vintage has caused many wineries to rethink practices both inside and outside of the winery. I witnessed the installation of an irrigation system at Emidio Pepe, something I never thought I’d see. De Iulis Pepe explained that irrigation would only be used as a tool if necessary, never a crutch, but she also made it clear that they could not afford to lose another vintage. Sabatino di Properzio of La Valentina arranged a system of pumping water from a nearby river and trucking it to his vineyard to save his vines. Leonardo Pizzolo of Valle Reale described losing more than 3,600 vines during 2024, which he’s now replanting. He is also praying for a “normal vintage.” 

Irrigation trenches dug in Emidio Pepe’s Branella vineyard. A sign of things to come following the 2024 vintage.

This is the hope of winemakers across Abruzzo: the return of a normal vintage. As of March 2025, I can attest to snow in the mountains and several rainy days. Hopefully, that’s a good sign for the future. 

Snow melting on the Maiella Massif in March 2025, which will help provide water reserves for the season ahead.

I tasted the wines in this article during estate visits and centralized tastings in early 2025. I did not taste new releases from Valentini, De Fermo, Amorotti and Cingilia, as the wines were not yet bottled at the time of my visit. I will update this report as I taste those wines.

© 2025, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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