Which country produces more wine in terms of volume than any other country in the world?

The answer is not France, but Italy. According to Wikipedia, Italy was responsible for the production of 8.5 million tonnes of wine in 2007, with France languishing behind in 2nd with 6.5 million tonnes. Believe it or not, China was in 3rd with 6.25 million tonnes.

So what’s the big deal with Abruzzo?

Abruzzo is a mountainous wine producing region in central Italy which lies to the east of Rome. In terms of volume, it ranks fifth in Italy.

The wines are average at best, right?

That’s quite a sweeping statement, but it’s true that there is a lot of very boring wines coming out of Abruzzo. This is largely due to such high yields and poor care of the vines. Much of the wine is consumed as table wine or used in blending, but like many of these places it has some fine exceptions. Those who have access to the best plots of land and are managing the vineyards in the right way are making very drinkable wines with real quality from the likes of the Montepulciano and Trebbiano grapes.

Montepulciano. You’ve lost me now.

Montepulciano is one of Italy’s red grape varieties. It enjoys the warm climate and hilly vineyards of Abruzzo, and since growers have started to get their act together they are now delivering real value. You can get light and fruity styles, but there are also more serious, more robust examples, some of which have had time in oak.

What if I’m looking for a nice white wine?

Trebbiano is the white grape of Abruzzo. It’s the sort of grape that gets slated because it will grow just anywhere and in vast quantities at that, but you could say it’s a bit of a dark horse. Naturally high in acidity, low in alcohol and often more savoury than fruity, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is by definition a classic food wine, if often limited to good quality table wine status. It is known as Ugni-Blanc in France, where it is also widely grown.

Any other nice wines or wineries to look out for?

Pecorino is a white grape variety indigenous to Abruzzo. It’s quite full-bodied, not unlike Pinot Grigio, but again a great food wine and very distinctive to the region. If you’re of the curious minded, well worth a try. For a better insight into a top Abruzzo winery, click here to view our interview with Farnese.

The Farnese range is on sale for the month of May.

It is with some irony and much sadness that just a couple of weeks after my tribute to the wines of d’Abruzzo, the beautiful mountainous region of central Italy should be international headline news following a devastating earthquake near the medieval city of l’Aquila.

I had planned a follow-up to the (sometimes) magnificent Montepulciano, with a carefully couched post on the (often less than) magnificent Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, with the intent of highlighting a food diamond in the rough. The extensive and very descriptive coverage of the area, towns and villages around l’Aquila has given us an unromanticised view of life in what remains a predominantly rural and proudly traditional backwater of Italy.

In reading up a bit on Abruzzo’s main white grape variety, you get an overwhelming sense of the unspectacular, and often more than a hint of criticism towards its wines. The Oxford Companion to Wine uses adjectives like undistinguished, uninspiring and ‘thin’ to describe Trebbiano and its French synonym Ugni Blanc, and notes a lack of care in many wineries responsible for its production.

Much of this criticism comes from the prolific growth and yields possible from the grape. It is estimated that more wine is produced from the variety than any other in the world, with a greater area covered in Italy and France than any other grape. (Have most people even heard of Ugni Blanc?)

But in understanding the trends of wine consumption around the world, you grasp something of the nature and purpose of production in regions like Abruzzo. Italy has been the world’s largest producer of wine for some time, and on a consumption per capita basis only trails France.

Whilst average consumption has fallen considerably in both countries, the production trends still reflect lifestyles that would have seen country workers consume as much as a litre of table wine a day in days gone by.

Critically, most of this consumption would have been with food, and this is where our Trebbiano defends its corner. Naturally high in acidity, low in alcohol, and unapologetically not bursting with vibrant flavour, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is by definition a classic food wine, if often limited to good quality table wine status.
With erraticness comes authenticity and, provided it doesn’t pretend to be anything else, long may Abruzzo remain true to its past.

For Trebbiano at its table wine best, try this d’Abruzzo from three-time Italian Winery of the Year Farnese, or as Ugni Blanc in the cracking value Cuvee Jean-Paul Sec from the Côtes de Gascogne (at thankfully the same prices as yesterday thanks to the one good thing that came out of the Budget!).