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THE HISTORY & CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VINE

The Montonico vine has a very ancient and valuable history strongly linked to the events that have characterized and distinguished its territory over time.

A source dating back to the early 1600s of the Catasto Onciario testifies that already in that period, in the Vestino area between the provinces of Teramo and Pescara, on the slopes of the Gran Sasso d'Italia and more precisely in the middle valley of the Fino river, there was a vine with this name, precisely the Montonico which saw in the municipality of Bisenti the quantitatively most important settlements, to confirm this thesis also studies by Prof. Leonardo Seghetti (winemaker of national fame) who has always been passionate about this vine. The Montonico vine was already known in central-northern Italy, in fact in 1640 the agronomist of a noble family as well as a Bolognese scholar and enology enthusiast Vincenzo Tanara thus defined the Montonico "The Montonico has the same qualities as other great white grape varieties, it favors not leaving the bunches on the vines until natural ripening, because being very good to eat, it keeps well for the winter; it does not make a sweet but tasty wine".

When the Napoleonic troops entered Italy between 1798 and 1799, the French in Abruzzo came across the cultivation of this native vine of the Teramo hinterland, the Montonico, and found its wine so fresh, harmonious and fragrant that they renamed it " le petit champagne” and to request supplies for the various detachments present in the region.

It is amply illustrated and described by Giuseppe Di Rovasenda in the National Ampelography Essay, (1865 - 1877) which was immediately followed by the Universal Ampelography Essay, also translated into French; subsequently Prof. Francesco Antonio Sannino (1910) notes (in the annexes of the oenology treatise) Montonico among the most important vines present at the time in the province of Teramo, in particular in the Val Fino area. Over the centuries it has been repeatedly mentioned as a very productive vine, understood as a fruit, excellent to eat and consequently exported as table grapes in Germany and Switzerland (the departures of trains loaded with Montonico grapes from the Montepagano / Rosburgo FS station are legendary today Rose garden of the Abruzzi); a supply en route was stopped and savored at the Higher School of Agriculture in Milan where the young Prof. Giovanni Dalmasso (later to become a luminary of Italian oenology) was Assistant of Viticulture and Enology (1909 - 1911) who appreciated its characteristics and the texture.

Even Prof. Attilio Scienza (Professor of Viticulture at the University of Milan) through his studies considers the Montonico Vine among the oldest and progenitors of world viticulture. Up until the 1960s, Montonico was widely spread in the Vestino area, but from that date onwards, its cultivation area has been increasingly shrinking and today it remains present mainly in the Bisenti area and in the neighboring villages, today it starts again from Bisenti. the cultivation and transformation of this vine.