Ciavolich Aries Pecorino Colline Pescaresi

About Ciavolich Aries Pecorino Colline Pescaresi

Ciavolich Aries Pecorino Colline Pescaresi is influenced by cool breezes from the Adriatic Sea and shows notes of salinity, rosemary, lemon, and apple.

The grapes for the Ciavolich Aries Pecorino come from a 1ha plot of pergola vines planted in 2000 on the estate in Pianella and from 1ha of cordon-double guyot vines in Loreto Aprutino planted in 2011. The grapes are hand-harvest as the first light of sunrise breaks the horizon and carried directly to the winery in small baskets. The freshly selected grapes are pressed softly and the grape must ferments under controlled temperature in stainless steel vats. When fermentation ends a selected lot is transferred to used French oak tonneaux for a short élevage of three months. The final cuvee is then assembled and bottled, resting further for 2 more months before release.

About Chiara Ciavolich

The Ciavolich family traces their roots back to Bulgaria in the 1500s. A family of wool merchants by trade, they eventually left their homeland to escape the Saracen invasion. They settled in Miglianico in the province of Chieti around the year 1560. In 1853, they built their first wine cellar which still stands today as one of the ancient winemaking landmarks of the Abruzzo region. The cellar was built underground beneath Via Sud and connects to the barrel rooms under the palace. A wide cave on the Eastern wall of the winery was expanded during the Nazi occupation and reached under the convent of Suore di Sant’Anna. This tunnel was used during WWII as a bomb shelter until the family was finally forced from the estate in December 1943.

At the end of the war, the family returned to Miglianico. Life and winemaking eventually began again. In the 1960s the family inherited from Donna Ernestina the Loreto Aprutino estate in the province of Pescara. This 50-hectare estate held some of the most prime vineyards lands in the area and was eventually planted to Montepulciano, Trebbiano, and Cococciola.

Since 2004, the estate has been run by Chiara Ciavolich and her husband Gianluca. They have brought a modern approach with traditional philosophy to viticulture and winemaking. Sustainable methods are employed both in the vineyards and throughout the entire winemaking process. Chiara seeks to elevate the traditional varieties of the zone through both a modern interpretation of the vines, and a more historically traditional technique in the Fosso Cancelli bottlings. The estate comprises 40ha of vineyards located in the 2 small towns of Loreto Aprutino and Pianella in the province of Pescara.

About Pecorino

Pecorino is a light-skinned wine grape used in Italy’s eastern coastal regions, particularly in Marche and Abruzzo. A classic Pecorino-based wine is dry and mineral, straw-yellow in color and has an elegantly floral bouquet of acacia and jasmine.

The variety has a long, complicated, and all-too-common history. It has been cultivated in the Marche region for hundreds of years but low yields saw it replaced by more-productive grape varieties like Trebbiano.

By the mid-20th Century, Pecorino was thought to be extinct. In the 1980s, a local producer researching native varieties investigated a rumor of some forgotten vines in an overgrown vineyard. Cuttings were taken and propagated and eventually grew enough grapes to make a very good wine in the early 1990s. Since then, the variety’s plantings have grown exponentially, and Pecorino is now found across the Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria, and Tuscany.

Pecorino offers high acidity as well as a high sugar content, making it very useful in the winery. The sugar translates into reasonably high alcohol, but the acidity helps to balance this, ensuring the wines are still crisp and fresh.