Why do you treat these two regions together you ask? First, they were a single political unit from the time of the Kingdom of Naples, only splitting into two with the carving out of the province of Campobasso in 1963 to form the region of Molise. Second, they only have three (Abruzzo) and one (Molise) DOC sparkling-wine zones.
Both regions are mountainous, with mountain regions accounting for 65% of available lands and serving to keep rainstorms and inclement weather from the west at bay. Storms from the east do bring significant rainfall to the regions from time to time. The climate is temperate in areas facing the Adriatic Sea and continental in the areas facing the Apennines.
While Abruzzo is known for its red wines from the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo cultivar, Molise is "the most obscure of the Italian wine regions." In discussing the regions in two separate Vinous articles, Ian D'Agata made the following observations:
- They produce too many inexpensive wines that are little or no better than generic bulk wine and should not be bottled
- The bad white wines are insipid, tart, thin, ... fruit-challenged
- The less successful reds are downright caricatural, overly smoky, overly ripe, and overly oaked
- 75% of Abruzzo wine is made by 40 different Coops.
- A new generation of viticulturists and winemakers are joining the family wineries and improving the quality of those wines
- Many Abruzzo estates are seeking vineyards higher up in the mountains in an effort to improve grape quality.
The chart below shows the sparkling wine zones in Abruzzo (topmost figure) and Molise.
Some observations:
- Limited number of DOC sparkling wine zones in each of the regions
- Very little overlap in the indigenous grapes utilized in the production of sparkling wines in the two regions
- Primarily cuvées in Abruzzo while Molise permits a broad array of varietal sparkling wines.
©Wine -- Mise en abyme
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