Women of Wine: Italo Pietrantonj's Alice Pietrantonj

Vittorito is a stunningly well-preserved medieval mountain town in the rough terrain of L'Aquino Province in the northern Abruzzo region of southern Italy. It has been home to eight successive generations of winemakers in the Piedrantonj family. Local tax records reveal that the Pietrantonjs' first vineyard was planted in 1791, and their first wines were sold in 1830. The winery can indisputably lay claim to being the oldest continually operational winery in all of Abruzzo, long before Alice Pietrantonj's great-great-great-grandfather Niccolo bottled and labeled their dynastic wines for the first time in 1887.

Current owner and winemaker Alice Pietrantonj and her sister, co-owner Roberta, were primed for their role many years before. The heritage of their family's viticultural practice is enshrined in the town's architecture itself. Fourteen meters below street level are a pair of massive 37,000-gallon holding tanks lined with Murano glass tile, hand-dug next to the winery's cellar in 1893. Their subterranean "wine cave" is also home to several rows of 4,500-liter walnut botti, where their prized wine is fermented. In upholding the great traditions of the past, Alice pays homage to her lineage: progenitors and purveyors of the inaugural wines of their appellation and region. Wines from this area only became widely distributed in the U.S. in the 1970s through giant co-ops and merchants. Alice's uncompromising wine offers a profound glimpse into the past. It is instructive of what so many contemporary examples of Montepulciano wine have lost in the drive to be explicitly commercial and "international" in style.

Featured Wine: Italo Pietrantonj Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2018

The "Black Label" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a wine made in the traditional style as a tribute to the old family winery. Made from vines up to 30 years old grown in weathered clay soil, it screams "traditional" in all the right ways! After a slow fermentation, the wine was aged in large oak vats for eight months, which offers sweet spice flavors of anise and dried tobacco in the mouth with a hint of cocoa on the finish. Alice Pietrantonj's house staple Montepulciano is a lovely wine full of dried floral and fruit notes complemented by soft leather and earthy aromas. It offers plenty of full flavors while remaining very pure and fresh. Rustic yet refined, this wine would be a lovely accompaniment to duck or pheasant, as well as pasta dishes with hearty sauces.

Featured Price: $16.97/bottle • Save $3.02/bottle