2019 Tor Del Colle Pecorino Terre Di Chieti IGT Italy 750 ml

Tor del Colle’s Pecorino hits the same sweet spot of crispness and refreshing acidity that we find in our favorite Loire Sauvignon Blancs and Rías Baixas Albariños. But unlike most of the releases coming out of Sancerre or Galicia’s top vineyards, today’s bottle is a screaming deal—besting 99% of the competition at the same price point.

The ancient Pecorino grape is enjoying a surge in popularity, as sommeliers at places like Del Posto and Spiaggia gush over it. That means you have a short window to acquire regional benchmarks like this one at market-beating value prices. 

James Suckling calls this new, modern set of Pecorinos “$15 wines that taste like $50.” Adding fuel to the fire, the critic added: “In many fine-dining restaurants around the world it is finding a niche following, often described as a sommelier’s wine. Although still rare, I could easily picture a boom of pecorino.”

That comes on top of enthusiasm from Wine Spectator, which described Pecorino as a “‘where have you been all my life’ white wine,” that’s “really dazzling stuff.”

Abruzzo has become ground zero for the grape’s revival, and the third-generation family behind the Tor del Colle label makes one of the best Pecorinos you can find. Hitting the palate like a cool sea breeze scented with citrus trees, it’s an Italian white discovery we couldn’t be more excited to share. 

This release is a needle in a haystack find, one of those under-the-radar bargains that you end up opening again and again while other, higher-priced bottles wait in the fridge. 

As Tor del Colle’s Pecorino has become a sommelier obsession, we’ve seen it pop up on a number of influential menus—it’s served by the glass at a three-star institution in San Francisco, and poured at a beloved oyster bar in Brooklyn. Our first, electrifying introduction to Abruzzo’s raciest mineral-driven white was in the Florida Keys, mingling deliciously with the salt air and with the fresh line-caught fish in our tacos.

Grown in clay-limestone soils situated just 20 minutes from the Adriatic Sea, this is a bottle that belongs by the ocean. Its legacy dates back centuries to when shepherds roamed the rocky, brisk slopes of Abruzzo, snacking on the grapes that produced this wine—hence the name, from “pecora,” Italian for sheep. It was thought to be lost, until vines were discovered years ago in a Marche ravine. 

Interpreting the grape for modern palates, Tor del Colle employs a stainless steel treatment to keep this white pure, not to mention as taut as a fishing line with a grouper dancing on the other end. It’s a bottle we love as much for its freshness of spirit as its bargain price—a new entry to our canon of favorite whites.