Molise Rosso DOC
What’s in a name? Quite a bit when it comes to Montepulciano apparently. 🍷
The Molise Rosso DOC used to be called Molise Montepulciano DOC, the reasoning behind this was simple; it had to be at least 85% Montepulciano (as you can see from my infographic above). Seems sensible right. However, from around 2000, Molise was banned from using the word Montepulciano on their labelling.
Initially, I thought this was caused by our Northern neighbours in Abruzzo, but after looking into the matter it seems that it was actually the Consortium of Vino Nobile del Montepulciano (in the province of Siena) in the Tuscany Region. For those that don’t know, and I’m sure there are many of you who don’t, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a region in Tuscany that produces premium red wines…from Sangiovese. The argument was that consumers could be confused between wines from Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Molise.
I find this ironic because if you ask most people in the UK what comes to mind when you say Montepulciano it would be Abruzzo (not the Tuscan region)! So when you see Molise Rosso just mentally think Molise Montepulciano….and then buy a bottle, as Molise produces some of the best around.
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