The 2021 Torre dei Beati 'Cocciapazza' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo "plays in the same league" as the best-of-the-best Montepuclianos, Brunellos, and Chianti Classico Riservas. It just costs a lot less, and it was one of Vinous Media's top-rated Montepulcianos of the brilliant 2021 vintage.
Antonio Galloni of Vinous Media has one of the best palates of any critic out there, and he raved about this one, giving it 95 points!
"The 2021 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva Cocciapazza has come along beautifully after another year in bottle. Dried violet, sweet smoke, ash, dark chocolate shavings and crushed blackberries form its brooding bouquet. It's silken and elegant in feel, with a wave of ripe red and black fruits flowing across a core of tactile minerals and spice. Drink now through 2040."
What's amazing is that Mr. Galloni scored this the same as Emidio Pepe's legendary Vigne Branella ($200) and Vecchie Vigne Casa Pepe ($150). For the 30 years I've been in the wine biz, Emidio Pepe has represented the pinnacle of what the Montepulciano grape could express, but Fausto Albanesi of Torre dei Beati makes a strong case that he has joined the ranks of the greats.
As a passionate veteran of this wonderful business, I have some advice for anyone who wants to open their own wine shop. BUY WINES LIKE THIS! What else really needs to be said here folks? This is everything I look for in a wine and more. Family-run estate, certified organic, soaring aromatics and assertive flavors, critically acclaimed, serious cellar potential, and on and on and on.....
For those who think the Montepulciano grape cannot produce world-class wines, THINK AGAIN! Emidio Pepe was the first to transform this oft-rustic and rough-and-tumble grape into something more refined and elegant, and I love his wines, I just don't like the price of entry. Good news, Fausto Albanesi's Cocciapazza is totally in the same league as Emidio Pepe, it just comes to you at a fraction of the price.
Produced from old, low-yielding, organically farmed vines planted in 1972, this sees 20 months of aging in French barriques, new and used. The resulting wine possesses surreal depth and complexity, along with wonderful harmony of extraction and alcohol. This is not a "small wine," not at all, it's big, ripe, rich, and concentrated, but Fausto coaxes out an elegance and balance in his Cocciapazza Montepulciano that is reserved for the top 1% of wines produced in the appellation.
You can drink this now for sure, just decant it for a couple of hours to let it unwind. At the 2 hour point, the bouquet of this wine becomes otherworldly, with heavenly notes of ripe blueberry, blackberry, clove, allspice, cocoa nib, and dusty herbs all coming together and continuing on the silky, fine-grained, and elegant palate. Will it improve? You bet it will -- drink over the next 10 to 15 years.
Josh Spurling
Owner, Operator, Wine Monger
Table Wine Asheville
