2022 Cantina Sangro Terra Regia Abruzzo Pecorino

Abruzzo Pecorino is one of Italy's most exciting white grapes — a native variety that nearly disappeared before a handful of growers brought it back in the late 1990s. The name comes from the same root as pecorino cheese: sheep grazed the high-altitude vineyards where the grape thrived, and the variety's signature saline minerality echoes the salted-pasture character of the cheese itself. At $16.99, this is the kind of white that makes you wonder why you've been spending twice as much on Pinot Grigio.

Cantina Sangro was founded in 1971 by 110 members — mostly small family growers managing mixed cultivation of vines, olives, and orchards. The Terra Regia line comes from their Quality Vineyards project: hand-selected fruit from south-facing hills around Fossacesia at 200 meters, where deep limestone-rich soils and high brightness give the grapes both ripeness and cut. Pecorino is one of the cooperative's native specialties, and the wine embodies the passion and expertise handed down for generations.

The grapes are hand-harvested in mid-September, soft-pressed, and fermented in stainless steel at controlled temperature for twelve to fifteen days. The wine is aged on its lees with batonnage — a technique borrowed from Burgundy that adds texture and weight — then rests three to four months in bottle before release. The result is a wine that opens with peach, grapefruit, and white flowers, then slides into a juicy, saline-driven finish with the kind of mineral snap you'd expect from a bottle twice the price.

Fresh, juicy, and crackling with salt-crystal energy. This is the white you pull for grilled fish, shellfish, or anything that tastes better with a squeeze of lemon. Drinks well now and will hold its brightness through 2025.