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92pts Vinous
Wickedly fresh, the 2023 Pecorino opens with a pretty blending of stone dust and white smoke, giving way to young peach and sage. This splashes across the palate with soft textural waves while maintaining fantastic energy. A spicy mix of sour lime and green apples saturate the senses. The 2023 cleans up beautifully, tart and mouthwatering, with a saline feel and a sensation of liquid stone. This zesty and wiry Pecorino from Tiberio is a total pleasure to taste.

– ByEric GuidoonJuly 2024

Cristiana Tiberio’s current releases are simply fantastic. They range from the entry-level 2022 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, which can outclass many of the region’s best wines at a fraction of the price, to the spell-binding 2020 Colle Vota and stimulating 2021 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Fonte Canale (reviewed in my recent vertical retrospective). In 2023, Tiberio handled the conditions of the vintage very well, turning out a mineral-intense Pecorino and a Trebbiano d’Abruzzo that may be one of the most exciting young renditions of this bottling Ive yet tasted. However, during my July visit in 2024, Cristiana and Antonio Tiberio were coping with a strange phenomenon. The vines had stopped producing after the pergola vineyards suffered from a combination of extremely dry conditions and cold air mass swept through the region in late April. As a result, canopies were extremely small, and clusters and berries were tiny. Cristiana Tiberio explained that she would not harvest the fruit from her older vines in an attempt to help them maintain their health for the upcoming seasons. The damage is sporadic, but she assured me that no amount of rain could fix the problems at this time. That said, there will be wine from 2024 but in much lower quantities and not from her older vines. While obviously grief-stricken over the situation, Cristiana Tiberio explained, We have suffered and overcome worse conditions when we first started out.

Varietal: 100% Pecorino massale selection
Altitude: 350 meters a.s.l.
Soil Composition: Mainly limestone with gravel-sandy subsoil
Vine Age: 21 years average
Fermentations: No press, just free-run juice fermented in stainless steel tanks. NO MALO