2015 Valentini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
So often you read about "traditional" farming, or even in some wine profiles words like "ungrafted"; in one case, Edoardo Valentini went an extreme step further: he tore out the mass-producing, modern clone of Trebbiano and in its place planted the ancient version that yields only a tiny percentage of the quantity, but quality that can't be measured by numbers. Put simply, Valentini's quest for perfection has them firmly atop our wine pantheon. Over his fifty years of crafting his own wines, Edoardo retained an aura of mystery as to his winemaking; truly what set the wines apart anyway was what happened in his vineyards, some 60 hectares' worth. In keeping with what was tradition prior to the dawn of mass-production, the canopies were trained high, allowing maximum ripeness to occur. We do know there were no modern techniques in the cellar - no stainless steel or Burgundy barrels - and the wines were traditionally only released when they were deemed ready. Edoardo often cut his output