| ABOUT VALENTINI
"Valentini is an almost sacred name among Italian wine lovers, long considered to be one of the country's top dozen wine estates on a par with Gaja, Giacosa, Quintarelli, Felsina, Fontodi and a handful of others. Valentini's reputation rests on the strength of only three wines, all of which are at the top of their categories: an amazingly ageworthy and refined Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a Trebbiano d'Abruzzo that can showcase a complexity not unlike that of an aged white Burgundy, and a peerless Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, a rosé wine... While Valentini has always been most famous for its Montepulciano red, insiders know that the Trebbiano d'Abruzzo is probably the estate's most
successful wine today." –Ian D'Agata, Vinous (October 2013)
THE WINES OF VALENTINI – BY ERIC ASIMOV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Like quite a few others in the wine media in New York last week I was invited to a tasting of the wines of Valentini, the great producer in Abruzzo.
The word "great'' rarely appears in the same phrase as Abruzzo, as this region on the Adriatic coast of Italy is better known for inexpensive, mass-produced wines than for greatness. But for many years Valentini, along with Emidio Pepe, has been an exception to the rule. The Valentini wines are rare, and they are expensive, and so I grabbed the opportunity, presented by Valentini's new American importer, Domenico Valentino, to taste a few bottles.
Valentini is an idiosyncratic producer. For many years the estate was run by Edoardo Valentini, who with rare exceptions spoke of his wines only in the most general terms. He did not discuss his production methods beyond stating that in his cellar he only used large oak casks, never steel or plastic. He did not have a web site, nor would he communicate by e-mail.
Edoardo Valentini died in 2006, and his son Francesco now runs the estate, clinging to his father's policies and methods. Nicola Marzovilla, the New York restaurateur and owner of Domenico Valentino, told me that when he first tried to contact Francesco Valentini
about representing his wines in the United States, he was told, "You have to write me a letter, by hand.''
Apparently, their communication has relaxed since then, and now Domenico Valentino has begun to bring small amounts of the wine into this country. Valentini makes just three wines, a white Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, a red Montepucliano d'Abruzzo and a rose Cerasuolo d'Abbruzzo.
For me, the red is smooth, pliant and fruity, very pleasing but the least distinctive of the three wines. It is with the white, made from the usually ordinary trebbiano grape, that Valentini stakes its claim to greatness.
This wine is light and delicate, yet paradoxically dense and richly textured, which makes it so inviting to drink. I tasted four vintages, 2008, 2005, 1998 and 1990, and regardless, they were sumptuous yet subtle, with delicious, lingering flavors. The younger wines were more closed and textured; the '98 and '90 revealed more fruit and spice flavors.
This was not the first time I had tried the Valentini white wine, but I had never had the cerasuolo, as roses are known in Abruzzo, and this wine was the most surprising of the three. Like the white, it was rich, with a lavish, luxuriant texture. The 2008 was pale ruby in
color, a powerful wine with lingering flavors of berries and spices yet fresh and inviting.
The cerasuolo reminded me of a great Bandol rose, and perhaps it was so appealing partly because I have roses on my mind. My column is on Provencal roses, and in a tasting the wine panel was highly impressed by the quality of these wines.
It's common to treat roses as wines not to be taken seriously, and, indeed, at the Valentini tasting the question came up about why Valentini even bothered to make a rose.
"I believe that's the wine that Edoardo liked to drink,'' Mr. Marzovilla said, answering the question.
That's good enough for me.
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