Tavernello Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC

It feels good to be number one baby! And Tavernello is Italy’s number one wine brand. Here’s a few more numbers to have a mull over – 27 co-operative wineries, 12000 wine growers, over 32000 hectares of vineyards (that’s 85% of the total area of NZ’s wine production!) and a whopping 9% of Italy’s total wine production!

Those are the eye watering numbers the Caviro wine group can boast. They began in 1966 in the heart of Emilia-Romagna and today Tavernello is their flagship brand, with over 7 million Italian households regularly whipping the tops off amazing value Italian red and white wines.

This is the Tavernello Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC and if you’re new to Italian wine let’s break that all down for you…

Tavernello (pronounced tavern-ello) is the name of the label
Montepulciano (pronounced mon-ta-pull-channo) is the grape
D’Abruzzo (pronounced da-brutzo) is the region
DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) is the second level of a four tier Italian wine classification system (DOCG, DOC, IGP/IGT and finally Vino da Tavola, table wine or as we call it…plonk for plonkers!)

This is classic Montepulciano. We’re talking a gloriously easy drinking, medium bodied red with supple, savoury juicy red berry fruits. Perfect with grilled vegetables, pizza, pasta or with lamb skewers.