2024 Torre Zambra 'Colle Maggio' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Torre Zambra sits in the village of Villamagna, in Abruzzo's Colline Teatine hills, where sea breezes off the Adriatic meet cool air sweeping down from the Maiella mountains.

The estate takes its name from an old watchtower once held by the Zambra barons; in 1910, great-grandfather Vincenzo Cerchio acquired the land and planted the family's first Montepulciano and Trebbiano vines. Those early vineyards were lost in the Second World War, but the family replanted and formally founded the winery in 1961.

Today the estate is run by the fourth generation, led by Federico De Cerchio, farming organically across its holdings—certified organic since 2018—and leaning on native-yeast fermentation to keep the wines honest to their place. Villamagna is also home to one of the smallest DOCs in the world, and the De Cerchio family has been central to putting it on the map.

Colle Maggio is named for the single hillside it comes from—a southeast-facing slope of clay-limestone soil within Villamagna. It's 100% Montepulciano, the native monarch of Abruzzo, and it's bottled under the broader Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC rather than the estate's flagship Villamagna DOC.

After fermentation and maceration in stainless steel, the wine is aged in concrete and then in French and Slavonian oak tonneaux before bottle rest, building a deeply colored, structured red that drinks well above its price.