Tre Bicchieri 2026, the best wines of Abruzzo awarded by Gambero Rosso Gambero Rosso International

After a difficult 2023, marked by diseases and complex climatic conditions, the vineyards in Abruzzo reacted with healthy grapes, well ripened and perfectly balanced between sugars and acidity. The result was a production that highlights the identity of the region’s symbolic grape varieties — montepulciano, trebbiano and pecorino — in increasingly convincing forms.

The wine scene in Abruzzo is more vibrant than ever

With the publication of the Abruzzo wines that have obtained Tre Bicchieri in the Vini d’Italia guide by Gambero Rosso 2026, we take stock of a series of tastings that have accompanied us from early spring until the height of summer. What we have realised is that the Abruzzo wine scene today appears more vibrant than ever, with concrete signs of qualitative growth and a 2024 harvest that has managed to restore confidence and prospects.

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, here’s how it is transforming

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo remains the cornerstone of tradition, a wine with unquestionable identity strength. Historically linked to an opulent and muscular style, of which there are still somewhat anachronistic examples today, little by little it is managing to find new vitality thanks to producers who are choosing more measured paths: softer fermentations, less invasive oak, attention to fresh terroirs and light soils. This approach allows the grape variety to express a more contemporary version, still within the framework of a substantial wine, but more capable of speaking to a modern audience without giving up its profound character. The presence of new generations in the wineries, curious and open to international comparison, is accelerating this transformation.

The white wine front

Pecorino and Trebbiano now share the stage. Of the former, we have tasted over a hundred labels, and we were astonished by a quality level that is constantly growing, above all homogeneous from winery to winery, with immediate wines, pleasant to drink, very clean. A choice that looks to the present, but also to the future of the market, increasingly oriented towards freshness and lightness.

Trebbiano, as we have already said in the past, can surprise when it breaks away from the simplest patterns: in its vintage versions it still shows as linear, often banal, but with time and the necessary care it acquires complexity, flavour and authenticity, revealing its nobler and at the same time rustic vocation.

In Cerasuolo, the two souls of Abruzzo

Alongside these identities, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo represents one of the most authentic essences of the region. The 2024 harvest brought with it a quantitative increase and above all a marked improvement in average quality. There has been a rise in genuine Cerasuolo, capable of conveying all the energy of montepulciano in a lighter, fresher and more immediate guise, wines that unite in a single glass the two souls of Abruzzo, the mountainous and the coastal one, and which, not by chance, are viscerally loved by the Abruzzesi themselves.

Ultimately, the picture that emerges is that of a region that does not simply preserve its own history, but reinterprets it with intelligence, balance and new sensibilities.