Wine of the week: La Fiera Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2018
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
Consistency, consistency, consistency: Welcome to the La Fiera Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Italian red
One of the most difficult things about parsing cheap wine is consistency. So much cheap wine is made to hit a certain price that quality can vary greatly from vintage to vintage. Hence, a wine that is terrific one year when grapes are cheap can taste like sugar water the next when grapes are more expensive.
Fortunately, that has never been a problem with the La Fiera Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, an Italian red. Year after year – and I’ve been tasting the wine almost as long as I’ve been doing the blog – it is worth its $10 price. It may differ a bit from vintage to vintage, softer or more acidic or whatever, but it is always somewhere around Hall of Fame quality.
In this, the 2018 La Fiera Montepulciano d’Abruzzo ($10, purchased, 13%) has more structure and more oomph this vintage. That means more grip from the tannins and and the acidity isn’t as restrained. But it’s still varietally correct, with lots of cherry fruit, and it’s still fresh and enjoyable. So break out the sausage ragu.
One other note: The wine averaged 83.5 points on CellarTracker, the blog’s unofficial wine inventory software. Sigh. When will these people ever learn?
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