Cantina Marramiero

Marramiero is perhaps the most avant-garde winery in Abruzzo, despite being active in one of the region's most suited areas since the beginning of the 20th century. The staff's geological and agronomic expertise flows not only into a careful regime of environmental sustainability and low-impact agriculture, but also into a masterful and dynamic use of technology. Grape selection, for example, is carried out with optical infrared scanners, which impeccably select fruit that is unsuitable for vinification. The fermentation vats are also state of the art, as are the vacuum filters, and the barrique cellar, which is the real cornerstone of the production of the superior wines, which is managed and preserved with the utmost care for the constancy of the ageing temperatures. 

The historic estate is that of Sant'Andrea, in Rosciano, 30 hectares of vines at an altitude of 300 metres, where the historic vines of the Marramiero family are located around the splendid modern winery started in the 1990s by Dante Marramiero. Here, as in the nearby Milano estate, Montepulciano, Pecorino, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are grown on medium-textured clay soils with tuff inserts. Trebbiano, along with Montepulciano and Pecorino, is also grown on the Amarello estate, in the Piana d'Ofena, called the "oven of Abruzzi" for its particularly mild summer microclimate despite its high altitude (over 500 metres above sea level), which makes it a unique terroir in the world for elegant, full-bodied wines. Finally, three hectares of Trebbiano are grown on the Tratturo estate, another historic plot of land owned by the family. 

The Marramiero style is always clean-cut and defined, i.e. territorial but with a definite search for wine elegance. The reds are long-lived and structured, transforming the natural rustic vein of Montepulciano into something harmonious. This is demonstrated by the excellence of Dante and Inferi (“underworld”), two Montepulciano reserves that spend 120 and 40 months respectively in steel, barriques and bottles. And the simpler Montepulciano wines are not fooling around either: only steel and glass, but for 30 months for Incanto, and 18 months between wood, stainless steel and bottle for Dama, both sumptuous reds that are anything but immediate. The whites are also complex and varietal, among which the Trebbiano wines stand out: Anima (“soul”) (steel only) and Altare (“altar”) (30 months between barrique and bottle), which combine grapes from Rosciano and the Piana di Ofena, and the more agile and tense Dama, three months in stainless steel.