Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

Start with the confusion, because it is why half the people who buy this wine buy the other one. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made in Montepulciano, a town in the province of Siena in Tuscany, from Sangiovese. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is made in Abruzzo, three hundred kilometres to the south-east, from a grape called Montepulciano. Two wines, two regions, two grapes, two price brackets. The Montepulciano grape is not grown in Montepulciano.

With that out of the way: Vino Nobile is a DOCG requiring a minimum of 70 per cent Sangiovese. In the Valdichiana the grape has been called Prugnolo Gentile for centuries, after the plum colour the berry takes on when ripe; it is the same variety that makes Chianti Classico and Brunello, with local clonal selections. The remaining 30 per cent may be other permitted red grapes: Canaiolo Nero, Mammolo, Colorino, or international varieties. White grapes, once allowed, are no longer permitted.

Minimum ageing is two years from 1 January following the harvest, with a compulsory period in wood; Riserva requires three years, at least six months of them in bottle. Alongside sits Rosso di Montepulciano DOC, from the same commune and the same grapes, released within months and costing about half.

Since 2021 there is a third category, Pieve: minimum 85 per cent Sangiovese, only native grapes in the balance, estate-grown fruit, longer ageing, and the name of one of twelve historic parishes on the label.

Violet and dried plum first, since the local grape name comes from the plum, then sour cherry, sweet tobacco, spice, and with age leather and undergrowth. It is a savoury wine, but rounder and more floral than Tuscany's other big Sangiovese.

Structurally it sits between Chianti Classico and Brunello: medium to full body, acidity slightly lower than Chianti Classico, tannin rounder and less gripping than Brunello. Alcohol is typically 13.5 to 14.5 per cent. That softness is the character of the place, deeper and more fertile Pliocene soils in a wetter valley, not a lack of ambition, and it makes Vino Nobile the easiest of the three to drink young.

Colour is medium ruby going garnet at the rim early, never opaque. A very dark, dense, vanilla-scented Vino Nobile usually means a large share of international grapes and new barriques: permitted within the 30 per cent, but a long way from the historic profile.

Serve at 16-18°C in a medium to large glass. An Annata needs no decanting, since twenty minutes open is enough. A young Riserva or a Pieve is better for forty minutes in a decanter. Bottles over fifteen years old throw sediment and should be poured slowly straight from the bottle.

The local dish is pici all'aglione: thick hand-rolled eggless pasta in a tomato sauce made with aglione della Valdichiana, a giant mild garlic with cloves the size of a walnut that does not repeat on you. It is sharp, fragrant and cheap, and young Vino Nobile suits it precisely because the tannin is round rather than scouring.

Beyond that: grilled Chianina beef from the valley below, roast pork loin, lamb, sausages, rabbit, duck, bean and bread soups. For feathered game such as pigeon or guinea fowl, reach for the Riserva. Pecorino from Pienza, fifteen kilometres away, is the cheese: the fresh version with an Annata, the aged or pit-cured one with a Riserva.

It is also a good cooking wine for long braises and meat ragù, but use Rosso di Montepulciano for the pan and keep the Nobile for the glass. Avoid delicate fish, raw bitter greens, sweet-and-sour dishes and desserts.

Unopened, the bottle wants to lie on its side at 12 to 15 °C, in the dark, at around 70 per cent humidity, away from vibration and from anything that swings hot and cold. Left standing upright for months the cork dries and shrinks. The drinking windows are generous: a standard vintage sits well between three and eight years from harvest, a Riserva between five and twelve, and a Pieve or a Riserva from a strong year runs fifteen to twenty. Across those years the colour moves from ruby towards brick, the tannin loosens its grip and fine sediment collects along the lower side of the bottle.

Serve at 16 to 18 °C in a medium wide glass: above 20 the alcohol takes over, below 15 the tannin tightens up. A young vintage needs nothing more than twenty minutes open, a young Riserva or a Pieve gains from forty minutes in a decanter, and anything past fifteen years gets poured slowly and straight, leaving the sediment behind. Opened and re corked in the fridge, a bottle holds about two days, and across them the fruit flattens and the wine turns towards cooked, oxidised cherry.

The exact wording on the label is Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, with a numbered state seal across the neck. The confusion that costs money in English speaking shops is Montepulciano d'Abruzzo: a different wine, from a different region, made from a different grape, and often a third of the price. Montepulciano is both a Tuscan town and a grape grown in Abruzzo, and this bottle is the town, made from Sangiovese. Rosso di Montepulciano is the junior denomination from the same hills, younger and lighter and much cheaper.

Two more words are worth finding. Riserva means a third year of ageing before release. Pieve, on labels from the 2021 vintage onwards, names one of the twelve historic subzones. In the glass the colour is medium ruby turning garnet early. The nose runs violet, cherry, dried plum, sweet tobacco and spice, with leather and undergrowth arriving with age, and the tannin is rounder than Brunello while the acidity sits a little below Chianti Classico. A very dark, dense, vanilla heavy bottle usually carries international grapes and new oak: legitimate, and far from the historic profile.

Vino Nobile is less widely distributed than Chianti Classico or Brunello, which works in the buyer's favour: it is consistently underpriced for the quality, and independent Italian merchants carry it precisely because it sells on recommendation rather than reputation.

In the US expect USD 22-40 for an Annata and USD 40-70 for a Riserva. In the UK, GBP 16-30 and GBP 30-55. The new Pieve bottlings start around USD 45 and GBP 35. Rosso di Montepulciano sits at USD 14-22 and GBP 11-18.

The one thing to check on the shelf: the label must read Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. A bottle marked only Montepulciano d'Abruzzo at USD 9 is a different wine from a different region: a decent everyday red, but not this. Rosso di Montepulciano is the junior wine from the same place.

What to look for beyond that: Riserva means a third year of ageing; Pieve names one of twelve historic parishes and guarantees estate fruit and 85 per cent Sangiovese. Recent vintages worth buying are 2019, 2020 and 2021; 2017 was hot and should be drunk now.

Montepulciano is a ridge town of fourteen thousand people at 605 metres, an hour and a quarter south of Florence and forty minutes east of Montalcino. The walk is the point: from Porta al Prato the corso climbs a kilometre and a half between sixteenth-century travertine palaces to Piazza Grande at the summit, with Michelozzo's town hall, a cathedral whose façade was never finished, and the well crowned by griffins and lions.

Under those palaces are the historic cellars, cut into the soft tufo rock on two or three levels and holding 14-15°C all year. Contucci, De' Ricci with its monumental staircase, Talosa and the Cantine del Redi are all entered by walking down a staircase from a shop on the street, and they are the coolest place in town in August. A kilometre below the walls stands the Tempio di San Biagio, begun in 1518 by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder: a golden travertine Greek cross alone in a meadow, one of the purest Renaissance buildings in Tuscany.

The vineyards are in the hamlets of Gracciano, Valiano, Argiano, Cervognano, Sant'Albino and Ascianello, where the estates with the Valdichiana views are. Two dates: the Bravìo delle Botti on the last Sunday of August, when the eight contrade push eighty-kilo barrels uphill along the corso to Piazza Grande; and the Anteprima in February, when the Consorzio shows the new vintage. Pienza, Chianciano Terme, Montalcino and Lake Trasimeno are all within half an hour.