“Until Cristiana Tiberio came along, everybody thought Valentini’s great Trebbiano d’Abruzzo was a fluke. Not so: Tiberio’s 50-year-old Fonte Canale vines, with minimalist intervention in vineyard and cellar, delivers a standout wine of crystalline purity, offering lingering echoes of liquid minerals, orchard fruit and almonds…”
DECANTER MAGAZINE
Located in the rugged Adriatic region of Abruzzo, Cristiana Tiberio’s 30 ha estate has fast gained a reputation for her unapologetic take on what the wines of her region should be.
Working with very old, own-rooted Trebbiano Abruzzese vines and with the indigenous varieties of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Pecorino, she has made it her mission to craft wines that display real purity and elegance with a very distinct character.
The focus here is on combining indigenous varieties and unique terroir with state-of-the-art winemaking. The resulting wines are some of the purest and long-lived wines in the region.
Prior to taking over the family estate, Cristiana had an impressive array of winemaking experience, including Jacques Selosse in Champagne, Nicolas Joly at Coulee de Serrant, Egon Muller in the Mosel, and various producers in Chablis. You can assume from her resume that structure and minerality are key to her style.
Wine Spectator’s Robert Camuto: "Cristiana exudes a quiet, determined energy as she explains the lengths to which Tiberio goes for ‘purity.’ I thought I’d seen everything when it came to winegrowers working in tune with their vineyards, but Cristiana takes it to another level.”
To achieve her ends Cristiana uses methods that are extreme in their rigour and, when considered together, possibly unique. In the vineyards, Tiberio does not prune or plow in the summer, and doesn’t irrigate or fertilise at all. Anything that can be considered an adjustment to that natural vineyard state is ruled out, including biodynamic practices.
Cristiana is resolute: “Bringing other elements from another soil or subsoil or process is not a good idea. It’s super important that the vines express what they get from the roots and these subsoils only.” The ultimate purista…
Featured Wines
Trebbiano d’Abruzzo ‘Fonte Canale’
2020
"Pale yellow with gold-green highlights. Youthfully reticent but very pure and penetrating aromas of lime peel, lemon, almond flower and minerals. Deceptively open on entry in the manner of a great Chablis from Les Clos, with a suave set of citrus oil-accented flavours of orchard fruit and guava. Then much more like a Chablis from Blanchots on its lifted, fine-grained and extremely long mineral finish. citrus oil. A powerful, broad wine yet almost magically weightless as is absolutely typical of Fonte Canale, one of Italy’s best 10-15 white wines in practically every vintage. The 2020 is good to drink now but will be so much better five years from now. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 2027 – 2035."
96 points, Ian D’Agata
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 'Archivio'
2019
"The 2019 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Archivio opens slowly in the glass, darkly intense and youthfully coiled. Swirling brings an aromatic blend of foreign spice, balsam herbs, dried black cherries and lifting shaved pine notes. With its silky textures, this seduces, more lifted and poised than I’d imagined. A core of tart raspberry fruit stains the palate as a web of fine-grained tannins forms toward the close. While structured and dramatically long, the Archivio maintains a lovely harmony, as a bitter tinge of savory spice mingles with violet inner florals. Interestingly, the textural performance between the Archivio and Colle Vota seems to have traded places in 2019, as this is the more elegant and lifted of the two. It’s an atypical Archivio that should not be missed. 2026 – 2036."
95 points, Antonio Galloni
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo ‘Colle Vota’
2018
"Good full purple-red. Intensely floral notes of violet and lavender complicate black cherry, dark plum, smoke, minerals and sweet spices, along with a peppery herb nuance. Classically dry in the mouth but with a sultry core of superripe delicately smoky red and black cherry and sweet spices that reminded me of something that Dujac or Méo-Camuzet might make. Closes tangy and primary, silky and penetrating, with lingering perfume. Knockout wine, and don’t kid yourself: you have literally no idea just how good, great, Montepulciano wines can be unless you drink this wine (and Valentini’s) regularly. 2025 – 2038."
96 points, Ian D’Agata