Italy’s Workhorse Grape Is the Foundation of Some of Its Best Wine

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If you’ve tasted the Italian grape Trebbiano recently, it has likely been as the base for authentic balsamic vinegar or a glass of grappa offered after dinner in an Italian restaurant. It may also have been in a cheap and cheery high-acid white wine from Italy’s east coast, unless you managed to get your hands on a bottle that shows the true potential of this often-overlooked Italian grape. While most of the local production in Abruzzo is the red Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grape, a handful of producers are making high-end versions of Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, a crisp yet sophisticated white variety that gets even better with a bit of age.

The earliest written mention of Trebbiano is found in Historia Naturalis, the encyclopedic collection of volumes penned by Pliny the Elder, who perished in 79 CE during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It is not known exactly which version of Trebbiano he was referring to; a much more recent book, Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes, published in 2012, discusses six members of the Trebbiano family in depth and mentions several more. “While Trebbiano exists throughout Italy under many different names, the Abruzzese biotype we work with contrasts with the rest because of its low-yielding nature,” explains Leonardo Pizzolo, owner of Valle Reale, whose Vigna del Convento di Capestrano Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is a stunning example of a well-made Trebbiano. “When cultivated at low yields on well-exposed hillside or mountain sites, in the right vintage, it expresses some of the most age-worthy, powerfully complex white wines of Italy.”

“I find that the Vigna del Convento di Capestrano recalls some of the best Chablis: flinty and mineral, a touch reductive, but with ample texture, an evolving and alluring aromatic depth, and elevating acidity,” says Michael Duffy, corporate wine director of Fai Bravo Hospitality, which operates Massara Osteria Campana in New York City’s NoMad neighborhood. “I highlight that the wine is truly an example unto itself, because of its contrast with many of the other Trebbiano-based wines of the region.” Duffy finds the wine’s acidity, complexity, and freshness make it the perfect pairing for lighter or even raw foods at the start of a meal, such as Massara’s fluke crudo, but he thinks it also works well with larger seafood dishes or light meats. He also encourages guests to allow the wine to come to temperature over the course of the meal rather than keeping the bottle on ice, because the slight rise in temperature allows deeper, more expressive elements of the wine to show themselves.

Although many wineries in Abruzzo are located along the Adriatic coast, Valle Reale is high up in the mountains at the intersection of three national parks, a couple of hours away from Rome. Valle Reale’s Vigna del Convento vineyard borders property owned by Franciscan monks who began producing Trebbiano in the 1400s using spontaneous fermentation. Like his local predecessors, Pizzolo also prefers a hands-off approach. “Our philosophy in the cellar is to intervene as little as possible in the fermentation process,” he tells us. “We do not seek to direct it, but rather to allow it to evolve as naturally as possible.” He farms his vineyards using biodynamic practices to allow them to express their terroir and the effect of natural biodiversity. “For this reason, the cellar must remain as neutral as possible: it should host the process, not interfere with it,” Pizzolo says. With that in mind, he uses only stainless steel and glass vessels for both fermentation and aging, avoiding barrels, barriques, or amphorae that could in any way mask the vineyard’s innate characteristics.

Two iconic versions are Marina Cvetić Trebbiano d’Abruzzo DOC Superiore and Riserva, which winemaker Marina Cvetić says were first made “to create an Italian white capable of standing alongside the great wines of Burgundy.” Although Cvetić’s vineyards are about 50 miles away from Pizzolo’s, her hillside sites’ location beneath the Majella massif ensures constant air circulation, offering natural freshness to the grapes. She also credits the region and her vineyards’ biodiversity with supporting a healthy environment for cultivation of Trebbiano, and points out that while low yields limit production, fewer grapes on the vine equals increased flavor concentration and higher quality. Unlike Pizzolo, Cvetić ages her Trebbiano in French oak with light to medium toast levels; she explains that this helps the wine reach its full potential and that it “enhances depth, personality, and character while preserving balance and finesse.”

Cvetić believes Trebbiano d’Abruzzo’s finesse and composure set it apart from other interpretations of Trebbiano. “It is a more structured, precise, and terroir-driven expression of the grape, characterized by natural freshness, salinity, and remarkable longevity,” she says. While many people think of Trebbiano as a fresh white meant to be consumed young, Pizzolo maintains the Abruzzese clone is the “absolute pinnacle of longevity for white wine aging in Italy” and states that it is “truly one of the very few age-worthy Italian whites.” He thinks a shift in the drink-it-young paradigm would rescue true wine lovers from “missing the most fascinating and profound phase of its evolution.” Opening a bottle from each vintage and tasting them side-by-side once a year to better understand how the wine evolves, Pizzolo says he is always pleasantly surprised. Cvetić tells of a recent vertical tasting held in Rome, featuring 12 vintages of her Trebbiano d’Abruzzo dating back to 1998, which demonstrated its ability to evolve gracefully over time. “Older vintages revealed layered tertiary aromas, remarkable texture, and perfect balance between acidity, depth, and length,” she says.

Other producers worth seeking out are Valentini, Amorotti, Tiberio, and Emidio Pepe, who also make sophisticated, age-worthy versions of Trebbiano d’Abbruzzo. Although most vineyards are set high in the mountains in the interior of the region, one enduring coastal Abruzzese tradition is enjoying the local white at trabocchi, ancient fishing piers that have been converted into overwater seafood restaurants featuring simply prepared local catch. While Trebbiano is a surefire match for fish and mollusks, the refined style favored by top-tier producers is complex enough to hold up to chicken, pork, and veal dishes, even those with a hearty stock- or cream-based sauce. Served at some of the best Italian and international restaurants around the globe, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is definitely a variety you don’t want to miss.

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