Valentini

Valentini is one of Italy’s most revered and enigmatic wine estates, producing some of the country’s most sought-after wines from its hillside vineyards in Loreto Aprutino, Abruzzo. The Valentini family has farmed here since the 1600s, but it was Edoardo Valentini who, from the mid-20th century, elevated the estate into legend. Today, his son Francesco Paolo Valentini continues the same uncompromising commitment to tradition, authenticity, and terroir.

The estate works with three classic Abruzzese expressions: Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Production is tiny, and only a fraction of the fruit grown makes it into a Valentini bottle; the rest is sold off.

Fermentations are spontaneous, ageing is in large neutral Slavonian oak casks, and there is no fining, filtering, or technical manipulation. The focus is on purity, balance, and the ability to age for decades.

Valentini’s Trebbiano is widely regarded as one of Italy’s greatest wines, combining tension, depth, and minerality in a way that defies expectations of the variety. The Cerasuolo is a vivid, complex rosé made entirely from Montepulciano, offering both freshness and structure. The Montepulciano itself is only bottled in exceptional vintages and delivers a profound, age-worthy expression of the grape and region.

Rare, artisanal, and fiercely individual, Valentini stands as a benchmark for not only Abruzzo but for Italian wine as a whole, a timeless example of what is possible when tradition and terroir are given absolute priority.