Wine Podcast: The Honest Pour With John Lenart

If you're familiar at all with trebbiano, you're almost certainly thinking of trebbiano Toscano, which is a high yielding grape that often produces mundane wines. But not all trebbianos are created equally. 350 meters above the town of Cugnoli in Abruzzo, Riccardo Tiberio found a very old plot of trebbiano d'Abruzzese, which, despite it's name, is neither the same grape as trebbiano Toscano, nor is it common in Abruzzo.  ​In the year 2000 Riccardo purchased a small eight hectare plot of 60 year old trebbiano d'Abruzzo and carefully nurtured and replanted it. At the same time he expanded the site and included plantings of other indigenous varieties until he had a 31 hectare estate. In 2008 he handed over the growing and wine making to his son Antonio and daughter Cristiana. I sat down with Cristiana to talk about trebbiano d'Abruzzo and the importance of clonal selection and indigenous grape varieties.