Illuminati Zanna Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane Riserva 2017
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red, turning to garnet-red with ageing. On the nose, blackberry and flowers. It is a wine of great character, soft tannins, and is velvety and refined, serving as a powerful accompaniment to rich sauces.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This poised, polished red shows rich aromas of red cherry dipped in spirits alongside accents of menthol and tobacco. It's gentle and smooth on the medium-bodied palate, with a pert cherry flavor wrapped in dewy herbs and cigar box accents. Smooth tannins and bright acidity lend a cohesive texture to this red.
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James Suckling
Rich red and black berries with hints of sea shells, dried herbs and a touch of balsamic. Medium-to full-bodied with a relaxed palate, where the firm, fine and polished tannins bring out a drier aspect of the fruit. This needs another year to meld together better.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With a dark appearance and the bold concentration of a hot vintage, the Illuminati 2017 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane Riserva Zanna plays up its dense flavors of black fruit, spice and sweet earth. The bouquet is very generous, and this large-scale approach gives this wine plenty of latitude for grilled meat dishes.
Other Vintages
2015-
Wine
Spectator -
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
The success of the company is now ensured by Stefano Illuminati, supported by his brother Lorenzo and the latest generation of the family. This proves how Italy’s excellence is something written in the wefts of time and handed down from generation to generation. A process that requires exchanging ideas, improvement, experimentation and innovation.
Montepulciano is the second most planted red variety in Italy after Sangiovese, though it is achieves its highest potential in the region of Abruzzo. Consistently enticing and enjoyable, Montepulciano enjoys great popularity throughout central and southern Italy as well. A tiny bit grows with success in California, Argentina and Australia. Somm Secret—Montepulciano is also the name of a village in Tuscany where, confusingly, they don’t grow the Montepulciano grape at all! Sangiovese shines in yet another Tuscan village, here making the reputable wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
A warm, Mediterranean vine-growing paradise, in Abruzzo, the distance from mountains to seaside is relatively short. The Apenniness, which run through the center of Italy, rise up on its western side while the Adriatic Sea defines its eastern border.
Wine composition tends to two varieties: Abruzzo’s red grape, Montepulciano and its white, Trebbiano. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo can come in a quaffable, rustic and fruity style that generally drinks best young. It is also capable of making a more serious style, where oak aging tames its purely wild fruit.
Trebbiano in Abruzzo also comes in a couple of varieties. Trebbiano Toscana makes a simple and fruity white. However when meticulously tended, the specific Trebbiano d’Abruzzo-based white wines can be complex and long-lived.
In the region’s efforts to focus on better sites and lower yields, vine acreage has decreased in recent years while quality has increased.