Pecorino Colline Pescaresi IGP – 2023

Bright green-tinged deep straw colour. Very ripe aromas of quince paste, lemon curd, glazed pineapple and orange oil, freshened up by a Pecorino-typical note of green figs; given the riper, showier style, there’s not much in the way of the variety’s usual sage and thyme nuances here. Then also rich and ripe in the mouth, with a very mellow, velvety mouthfeel to the fleshy, sultry almost tropical fruit and ripe citrus flavours. The aftertaste is long, creamy and round. This rich round ripe Tiberio Pecorino might not age as well as some other vintages of this wine, so drink up: but then again, it’s so delicious now, why defer gratification? I liked it, but those preferring higher-acid, more lithe wines might want to take a look at the very lifted, piercing 2023 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo from Tiberio, one of the best in recent memory. I had two bottles of this; both were just dandy, but one seemed fresher than the other. I scored it 93 and this one 92. 2024 – 2029

Family-owned estate, Tiberio specializes in wines made from authentic Abruzzo native grape varieties. At 350 meters above sea level, twenty-three miles inland from the sea near the lovely medieval hillside town of Cugnoli, Riccardo Tiberio found a very old plot of Trebbiano Abruzzese vines, which, despite the variety’s name, is a rarity in Abruzzo. A high-quality variety has nothing in common with other Trebbianos, the 60 years old vines must have been a great sight for Riccardo, who then and there decided to change his and his family’s destiny by quitting his job as an export manager starting his own winery in 2000. Today the winery is run by son Antonio (viticulture) and daughter Cristiana (winemaking) and it makes some of Italy’s best white, pink and red wines.

Cristiana Tiberio’s 2023 Pecorino d’Abruzzo is a beautiful young wine. It is ripe at fourteen percent octane and offers up a vivid, complex and deep bouquet of tart orange, passion fruit, lemongrass, lovely soil tones, a hint of green olive and a topnote of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is bright, focused and full-bodied, with a lovely core of fruit, superb mineral undertow, zesty acids and a long, complex and beautifully balanced, vibrant finish. I love the backend lift here. This is outstanding Pecorino! 2024 – 2035+

Wickedly fresh, the 2023 Pecorino opens with a pretty blending of stone dust and white smoke, giving way to young peach and sage. This splashes across the palate with soft textural waves while maintaining fantastic energy. A spicy mix of sour lime and green apples saturate the senses. The 2023 cleans up beautifully, tart and mouthwatering, with a saline feel and a sensation of liquid stone. This zesty and wiry Pecorino from Tiberio is a total pleasure to taste. 2024 – 2025

Cristiana Tiberio’s current releases are simply fantastic. They range from the “entry-level” 2022 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, which can outclass many of the region’s best wines at a fraction of the price, to the spell-binding 2020 Colle Vota and stimulating 2021 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Fonte Canale (reviewed in my recent vertical retrospective). In 2023, Tiberio handled the conditions of the vintage very well, turning out a mineral-intense Pecorino and a Trebbiano d’Abruzzo that may be one of the most exciting young renditions of this bottling I’ve yet tasted. However, during my July visit in 2024, Cristiana and Antonio Tiberio were coping with a strange phenomenon. The vines had stopped producing after the pergola vineyards suffered from a combination of extremely dry conditions and cold air mass swept through the region in late April. As a result, canopies were extremely small, and clusters and berries were tiny. Cristiana Tiberio explained that she would not harvest the fruit from her older vines in an attempt to help them maintain their health for the upcoming seasons. The damage is sporadic, but she assured me that no amount of rain could fix the problems at this time. That said, there will be wine from 2024 but in much lower quantities and not from her older vines. While obviously grief-stricken over the situation, Cristiana Tiberio explained, “We have suffered and overcome worse conditions when we first started out.”

Made from a vineyard planted with Pecorino vines propagated from five mother vines discovered in an abandoned vineyard, this is bright and flinty, with touches of citrus peel and a leafy, herbal note. In the mouth it combines good concentration with vibrant zestiness and mouthwatering salinity. There’s a lovely lemon verbena and orange character, with some apricot and subtle spice on the impressively long finish. Excellent. 2025 – 2028