2015 Valle Reale San Calisto Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 750 ml

Made only in the best years, San Calisto is organically farmed from the estate’s oldest vines, still trained in the pergola style that’s been traditional in Abruzzo for hundreds of years. These vines require considerable labor to farm and harvest, and because of Valle Reale’s cool climate up in the mountains, harvest often takes place in November. Talk about long hang-time.

But old vines don’t last forever. And in 2019, Valle Reale’s finally succumbed to the vine-disease esca, which had been decimating yields for a decade. So the 2015 is not only one of the greatest editions of San Calisto, it’s also the last vintage. Ever. 

This wine is absolutely in full flight right now, with a soaring nose of black cherries, dried plums, leather, forest floor, and an iron-rich minerality. The palate is savory and silky—our VP of Wine and Advanced Sommelier Laura Koffer called it “soulful and untamed,” calling it “Montepulciano in its most authentic, Old World form—complex, grounded, and vibrantly alive.” 

Valle Reale, a small estate in the mountains of Abruzzo, sits inside of thousands of acres of national park—at the intersection of three of them, really—and that wild landscape and intense biodiversity informs everything they do. Since their founding at the turn of the century, they’ve returned to the roots of abruzzese viticulture, embracing old, pergola-trained vines and converting modern plantings to the ancient training method, farming them organically.

San Calisto is the soul of the winery—vines planted in 1960 to heritage selections of Montepulciano and farmed lovingly every day since. Because of the cool climate up in the Gran Sasso mountains, they don’t designate a San Calisto wine every year. When they do, it comes from a tiny, four-hectare portion at the heart of the vineyard.

Fermented with native yeasts, aged for 18 months in larger oak barrels and a year in stainless steel, this shows off the muscular and refined personality that’s a trademark of the greatest Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. We’re going to be pouring it alongside rich and earthy dishes like coq au vin, roasted chicken with plenty of herbs, and mushroom risotto.