Valentini: a short history

Azienda Agricola Valentini is in Loreto Aprutino, in the hills of Abruzzo inland from Pescara, within sight of the Adriatic. It is a working farm as much as a wine estate: vines, olive groves and grain. Only three wines carry the family's name, and in some years none is released at all.

A family in Loreto Aprutino since the 1600s

The Valentini family, Spanish in origin, has lived in Loreto Aprutino since the seventeenth century, and wine, oil and wheat have been produced on the land throughout. For most of that time the farm was run by a manager on the family's behalf, as was normal for an estate of its kind.

Edoardo Valentini

That changed in the 1950s. Edoardo Valentini had trained as a lawyer, but he gave it up to work the farm himself, the first of his family to do so. He kept to the local grapes, Trebbiano and Montepulciano, and to the old strain of Trebbiano found in Abruzzo and not the more common Trebbiano Toscano. He trained the vines high on the traditional pergola, and he was severe in what he kept: most of the grapes were sold, and only a small fraction of each harvest was bottled under his own label. If a vintage did not satisfy him, he bottled nothing.

He was also private. He said very little about how the wines were made and rarely let visitors into the cellar. What is known is that the work is done by hand, the wines are raised in large old casks, and they are left alone.

Francesco Paolo

Edoardo died in 2006. His son Francesco Paolo had worked beside him for years and has carried on in the same way, with his wife Elena and their son Gabriele. He says the real work is in the vineyard and that he does little in the cellar.

The three wines

The Trebbiano d'Abruzzo is the wine the estate is known for: a white that needs time and keeps for decades, from a grape few people expect that of. The Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is a deep-coloured rosato made from Montepulciano in very small quantities. The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, the red, is made only in the years the family thinks are right for it.

At Vinco

We have a small parcel of the Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2022 and the Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo 2025, shipping in spring 2027. Please get in touch if you would like to know more.