Wine Note
2024 DOC Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Fazi Battaglia (Majestic £10.50)
It’s the shape of the bottle that strikes you first. It’s unusual and slightly familiar.
Then the name – Fazi Battaglia. Of course, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. That bottle was far more curvaceous – so much so that it was called the ‘Lollo’ after Gina Lollobrigida.
And the contents were white and not red.
The shape has been toned down to suit modern sensibilities, but it still stands out on the shelf.
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is the standby wine for the pizza, pasta, burger joints of the high street and Mediterranean resorts. It’s affordable, available (thanks to high yielding vineyards) and is ‘easy drinking’ thanks to its fruit driven low tannin style.
And the name is straightforward too. The Abruzzo region produces only two wines you are likely to see – Montelpulciano (red) and Trebbiano (white). The latter grape makes very dull wine so as far as wine merchants in the UK are concerned Abruzzo – Montelpulciano….
This example is deep red in colour. There’s lots of plum and cherry fruit on the nose and the palate. It’s a step up on pizza parlour versions and good value at £10.50 (the Mix Six price).
Is Verdicchio in the original bottle shape still around? It is but it’s not widely available. Perhaps it has fallen out of fashion because it belongs to the same era as straw covered Chianti bottles.
John Freeland
u3a Wine Tasting Group
Kibworth Band
