Praesidium producers only wines from the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grape and from what some people consider the ancient birthplace of this vine. They farm the vineyards organically, in the spring planting a cover crop of fava beans to add nitrogen to the soil and doing all the work by hand including a green harvest to control the size of the crop. They only use copper and sulfur as natural treatments against rot when necessary. They then hand harvest the grapes and crush them and allow spontaneous fermentation to take place.

The finished wine is always bottled unfined and unfiltered with just a few rackings for clarification. The Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva spends a few years in tank then goes either into older large Slavonian casks or smaller older barrels for aging for two years before spending another year before release in the bottle. They try to treat the grapes and wine with as little manipulation as possible while created a long lived wine that is like no other.

For more information, please see: www.vinipraesidium.it/