The Three Brothers, the Two Hillsides & the Renaissance They Refused to Import
In 1990, on the hills overlooking Spoltore near Pescara, a farm became Fattoria La Valentina. In 1994, three brothers — Sabatino, Roberto and Andrea Di Properzio — took over and began years of viticultural research. Their radical decision was what not to change: no international varieties, no abandonment of Montepulciano and Trebbiano Abruzzese. The shift, they said, would not be in the grapes but in how they were grown and vinified. Today, with consultant Luca d'Attoma, two estate terroirs — the seaside Bellovedere and the Majella slope of San Valentino — produce some 350,000 organic bottles a year, from everyday DOC classics to the Spelt crus and the Binomio made with Veneto legend Stefano Inama.
Origin — 1990, the Farm Above Spoltore & the Brothers' Research
Fattoria La Valentina was born in 1990 on the hills overlooking Spoltore, a few kilometres inland from Pescara in central Italy. The region around it had a long history as a source of inexpensive bulk wine — high quantity, low ambition, grapes sold off to cooperatives and blenders. La Valentina was founded precisely against that current, and in 1994 the three Di Properzio brothers — Sabatino, Roberto and Andrea — took over, beginning with what importers describe as initial and extensive viticultural research.
The conclusion of that research was a decision of restraint. Where other estates chasing quality swapped grapes — Cabernet here, Chardonnay there — the brothers chose to remain true to the traditional varieties of Abruzzo: Montepulciano, Trebbiano Abruzzese and the time-honoured but almost forgotten Pecorino, with a little Fiano and Ciliegiolo besides. The shift in focus is not in the grapes but in the way they are grown and vinified. If the region's reputation was going to change, it would change on the strength of its own varieties, farmed and made with an obsession the bulk era had never allowed.
That obsession had two engines. The first was terroir: the brothers set out to acquire and study vineyard sites beyond the home farm — higher elevations in the foothills of the Apennines, near a national park, in pristine conditions — so that the range could speak in more than one voice. The second was craft: in the modern cellar built in 2008, the wines are made under the strict supervision of technical director Luca d'Attoma, one of Italy's most sought-after consulting winemakers, the man behind some of Tuscany's most admired estates.
The partnership has produced exactly what the brothers intended: a range organized in three segments — the everyday Linea Classica, the cru-driven Linea Terroir, and Binomio, a high-end wine born of a joint venture with the Veneto producer Stefano Inama. In the vineyard as in the cellar, the Di Properzios farm all their own and leased land themselves, with hand harvesting and strict selection — and in the vineyard, as little interference as possible with natural processes. It is a leading example of what the importers call the modern renaissance of winemaking in Abruzzo — and the family has been at the forefront of that movement from the beginning.
The Place — Bellovedere by the Sea & San Valentino on the Majella
La Valentina farms roughly 40 hectares in two areas of high potential that could hardly be more different. The home estate — the Bellovedere vineyard, grown over the years to more than 20 hectares — sits just a few kilometres from the Adriatic coast at Spoltore, where sea and mountain together shape the fruit: warm maritime days, cool air sliding down from the Apennines, saline minerality in every white. The second holding lies about 20 kilometres away, on a steep slope of the Majella in the municipality of San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, descending toward Pescara — higher, wilder, at the edge of a national park. All estate vineyards have been certified organic since 2016, with maximum biodiversity and minimal intervention in the land's natural processes.
Bellovedere — the Seaside Estate
The founding vineyard: more than 20 hectares a few kilometres from the Adriatic, its name — "beautiful view" — earned honestly. The proximity to the sea and the mountains gives the area a specific climate signature: Montepulciano here ripens with perfume rather than weight, and the Trebbiano takes a saline, savoury edge no inland site can copy. The Bellovedere fruit anchors the estate's classic DOC wines — the bottles that converted a generation of drinkers to the idea that Abruzzo's everyday wines could be serious.
San Valentino — the Majella Slope
The acquired terroir: vineyards at higher elevation on the steep slopes of the Majella, near a national park in pristine conditions, in the communes of San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore and Scafa. Cooler nights, thinner mountain soils, slower ripening — fruit of greater definition and tension. It is here that the Spelt Superiore and Spelt Oro draw their Trebbiano, and here that the Binomio vineyard climbs to 400 metres. If Bellovedere is the estate's body, San Valentino is its spine.
Binomio — the Inama Partnership
The estate's most prestigious wine grows in a four-hectare vineyard at San Valentino cultivated in joint venture with Stefano Inama — the Veneto producer whose Soave crus are among Italy's most admired white wines. Two families, two regions, one hillside: Binomio ("pair," "couple") is a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo made with Inama's rigour and the Di Properzios' terroir, the estate's top-tier flagship and a conversation between two of Italy's great winemaking philosophies.
Certified Organic Since 2016
All of La Valentina's vineyards — owned and leased alike — have been certified organic since 2016, after years of farming that way in practice. The commitment runs deeper than certification: no artificial or chemical products, maximum biodiversity, minimal intervention in natural processes, hand harvesting with strict selection at the vines. At 350,000 bottles a year, it is among the larger fully certified-organic estates in this series — proof, alongside Jasci & Marchesani, that scale and purity are not enemies in Abruzzo.
Winemaking — Natural Yeasts, Stainless Steel & the Spelt Patience
The cellar philosophy mirrors the vineyard's: natural yeasts, minimal intervention, freshness and texture. Most of the range ferments and ages in stainless steel — the Cerasuolo sees eighteen hours of maceration followed by saignée and slow cool fermentation, with no oak and no filtration; the classic Trebbiano and Montepulciano likewise stay unfiltered, vegan, and deliberately youthful. The point is transparency: grape, site, vintage — nothing else on the label and nothing else in the glass.
The two Spelt wines show what the same philosophy looks like when it slows down. Spelt — the name evokes the fields of ancient cereals that once covered the Spoltore hills before vines took root here — exists in two elevations. The Spelt Montepulciano Riserva ages around eighteen months in large barrels and barriques, adding structure and spice without sacrificing the estate's trademark freshness. And the Spelt Oro Trebbiano, named "Oro" (gold) since 2017, practices a radical patience: after fermentation it rests four months sur lie in stainless-steel tanks that stand outside the winery, exposed to natural temperature fluctuations, then spends a further year in concrete — and is bottled only after fifteen months, unfiltered, unclarified and without any stabilization.
The outdoor tanks are the estate's signature gesture: instead of fighting temperature, La Valentina lets the seasons move through the wine, the winter cold and summer warmth settling the lees and building texture the way time rather than technology prefers. It is interventionist minimalism with a very Italian logic — do less, but do it with intent, and give the process all the time it asks for.
D'Attoma's technical supervision keeps the whole range under one stylistic roof: wines the Gambero Rosso describes as "strong in personality, original and sometimes modern, but that always maintain an interesting dialogue with tradition." Modernity, here, is not a departure from Abruzzo — it is Abruzzo, argued more precisely.
The Wines — Three Lines: Classica, Terroir & Binomio
The La Valentina range is organized in three segments — Linea Classica (the everyday DOC wines of exceptional value), Linea Terroir (the Spelt crus from the estate's two hillside terroirs) and Binomio (the flagship joint venture with Stefano Inama). All are certified organic, fermented with natural yeasts, made with minimal intervention, and largely unfiltered and vegan. Around ten labels, led by Montepulciano and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, with Pecorino and Cerasuolo completing the classic picture and Ciliegiolo and Fiano adding occasional intrigue.
La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC
Red — Spoltore, PescaraThe estate's calling card and its most exported wine — organic Montepulciano from the Bellovedere vineyards, stainless-steel raised, unfiltered, vegan. Dark cherry, plum, dried herb and a saline edge from the nearby sea; juicy but structured, honest but polished. It is the bottle that best embodies the brothers' founding thesis: that Abruzzo's workhorse grape, grown and vinified with obsession, needs no import to compete. Available at prices that embarrass far more famous regions. Organic. Natural yeasts. Unfiltered. Vegan.
La Valentina Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo
Rosato — Spoltore, PescaraA rosato made with precision: hand-harvested Montepulciano, eighteen hours of maceration, saignée, slow cool fermentation in stainless steel — no oak, no frills, just the grape and the terroir. Cherry-red in the glass — the name comes from cerasa, cherry — with fresh sour cherry, strawberry and pomegranate, lively acidity and a salty minerality that recalls its proximity to the Adriatic. Not a pale terrace rosé but a wine with backbone, and one of Italy's most honest rosati. Organic. Unfiltered.
La Valentina Trebbiano d'Abruzzo DOC
White — Spoltore, PescaraThe estate's purest form of Trebbiano — primarily Trebbiano Abruzzese from the organic vineyards around Spoltore, raised in stainless steel, unfiltered, vegan. Crisp apple, lemon, white peach and a hint of almond blossom; lively, clear, mineral, straightforward. A refreshing, purist white with a strong regional profile — the kind of honest Trebbiano that this series' mountain estates (Tiberio, Pepe) elevate further, and that La Valentina makes accessible at an everyday price. Organic. Natural yeasts. Unfiltered. Vegan.
La Valentina "Spelt" Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Superiore & "Spelt Oro"
Cru Whites — San Valentino, Scafa & SpoltoreThe name evokes the ancient cereal fields that once covered the Spoltore hills before vines took root. The Spelt Superiore is 100% Trebbiano Abruzzese drawn from the three communes of San Valentino, Scafa and Spoltore — mountain and seaside terroirs in one bottle. And since 2017, the Spelt Oro takes the idea to its radical conclusion: selected from just three hectares of old vines on compact limestone-loam soils near the coast, fermented and rested four months sur lie in outdoor stainless-steel tanks (exposed to natural temperature fluctuations), then a further year in concrete — bottled after fifteen months, unfiltered, unclarified, unstabilized. A dense, saline, age-worthy white of real individuality. Organic. Vinous 93.
La Valentina "Spelt" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva
Cru Red — Spoltore, PescaraThe estate's structured Riserva — organic Montepulciano traditionally vinified and aged around eighteen months in large wooden barrels and barriques (roughly half and half), bringing dark chocolate, liquorice and spice to the estate's dark-cherry core without smothering its freshness. Denser and more architectural than the base wine, with fine tannins and a long spicy finish — a Riserva with a clear line and great inner balance, scoring consistently in the low-to-mid 90s across international critics. Organic. Vegan. Unfiltered.
La Valentina "Binomio" Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Flagship Red — San Valentino in Abruzzo CiterioreThe estate's top wine and its boldest conversation — a joint venture between the Di Properzio brothers and Stefano Inama, the Veneto master behind some of Soave's greatest crus. Four hectares of Montepulciano on the steep Majella slope at San Valentino, climbing to 400 metres, farmed with the combined rigor of two families: Abruzzo's native grape seen through one of Italy's most exacting white-wine minds. Concentrated, savoury and long — the summit of the La Valentina pyramid, produced in tiny quantities and priced accordingly. Joint venture. Extremely limited.
Legacy — The Renaissance That Kept Its Own Grapes
La Valentina's legacy is argumentative. When the estate began in 1990, Abruzzo's reputation was fixed: inexpensive bulk wine, quantity over quality, grapes destined for anonymous blends. The new generation that rose to change this — the movement importers call the modern renaissance of Abruzzo winemaking — could have taken the easy rhetorical path and blamed the grapes. La Valentina took the harder one: the shift is not in the grapes but in the way they are grown and vinified. Three decades of ever-improving Montepulciano and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo DOC — from everyday bottles to the Spelt crus — have made that argument conclusively, and much of the world now drinks Abruzzo's native varieties because estates like this one refused to replace them.
The legacy is also institutional. With Luca d'Attoma as technical director, the estate imported the rigor of Italy's great consulting culture without importing its vanity — the wines remain recognizably, stubbornly Abruzzese, merely argued with greater precision. The Binomio partnership with Stefano Inama extends that dialogue across regional lines: two families, two philosophies, one hillside of Montepulciano. Few estates in the region have built so many bridges while staying so rooted.
And the legacy is democratic. Where the icons of this series — Valentini's silence, Pepe's decanted decades, Tiberio's pH 2.7 — exist at altitude and price, La Valentina's greatest influence may be at the base of the pyramid: affordable, certified-organic DOC wines, exported worldwide, that taught a generation of drinkers that Abruzzo's everyday bottles could be trusted. The Gambero Rosso anointed it a safe tip in the wine panorama of Abruzzo — in Italy, where the guide's praise is hardest won, there is scarcely higher praise for an estate of this scale.
From the farm above Spoltore to the Majella slope at San Valentino, from Linea Classica to Binomio, La Valentina completes this series' map with its most communal chapter: three brothers, two terroirs, one conviction — that Abruzzo's renaissance would be built not on imported grapes or borrowed styles, but on its own varieties, farmed organically and made with intent. The hills were always beautiful. The Di Properzio brothers simply made the wines match.