Italo Pietrantonj Etichetta Nera Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (2019)

The ‘Black Label’ Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a wine made in the traditional style as homage to the old family winery. After a slow fermentation, the wine is aged in large oak vats for 8 months, which offers sweet spice flavors of anise and dried tobacco in the mouth with a hint of cocoa on the finish, and then bottled. It is a lovely wine full of dried floral and fruit notes complemented by soft leather and earthy aromas offering plenty of full flavors yet staying very pure and fresh so that the fruit is not masked, nor is too heavy in body. It is a lovely accompaniment to all sorts of game, as well as pasta dishes with hearty sauces.