Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Cerasuolo DOC is one of Italy's most characterful rosé wines, and it comes from Abruzzo on the country's east coast. The name Cerasuolo refers to the deep, cherry-red colour that sets it apart from most other Italian rosati. Where many rosé wines are delicate and pale pink, Cerasuolo has a more saturated colour and a fuller expression in the glass.
The secret lies in the production. The wine is made from the montepulciano grape, which gets brief contact with the skins during a light maceration. The lightly coloured must is then drawn off and fermented onwards with minimal oxygen exposure. The result is a rosé with both colour and body, which places itself, in terms of taste, a good distance from the slighter styles.
In the glass you encounter aromas and flavours of strawberry and dried cherries, seasoned by orange peel and a hint of cinnamon. This gives a wine with a warm, almost autumnal tone, which nonetheless has the freshness and fruit you look for in a rosé. It is precisely this combination that makes Cerasuolo versatile at the table. It has enough body to accompany more flavourful dishes, yet retains the easy accessibility that makes rosé such a rewarding companion.
For you who feel like exploring Italian rosé beyond the familiar, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Cerasuolo is an obvious entry point. It tells you something about Abruzzo and about the montepulciano grape, which here shows a completely different side than in the dark, powerful red wines the region is otherwise known for. It is a wine with a clear identity and a strong bond to its area, and at the same time a style that is easy to love. If you want to dig deeper into the area and the grape, you can follow the trail onwards to our pages on Abruzzo and Italy.