Rabasco

Rabasco is a small, family-run business, distinctly artisanal in nature and steeped in ancient farming traditions, cloaked in the charm of a rural authenticity that is still intact. Iole Rabasco founded the winery in the early 2000s, moving from the Vulture territory of her native Barile to that Abruzzo region she knew from her long years of vacationing in Francavilla. The encounter with wine was always a family affair, for which he thanked his father's restaurant business: becoming passionate as he went along, he would even leave a position as manager at De Cecco, even putting aside his law degree, to devote himself completely to selection within the restaurant. In the wake of these experiences, with the birth of her child she decided to move to Pianella, where she would realize, together with her mother Giulia Palese, her dream of a project of sustainability and quality, aimed at enhancing the purest and most natural territorial essence.

Rabasco Winery covers an area of about 10 hectares, scattered among numerous parcels on the territory of the Pescara hills. The winery is headquartered in the municipality of Pianella, where part of the vineyards are located, while the bulk of the plantings are laid out on the not-too-distant municipality of Loreto Aprutino. There are four main vineyards: Cancelli, La Conchetta, and San Desiderio with southern and southwestern exposures, while La Salita faces northeast. They share a soil that is fundamentally clayey in nature and rather deep: depending on the area, there are then alluvial sediments and fossil remains of a marine nature. The microclimate is extremely varied, influenced by currents blowing directly from the nearby Adriatic Sea as well as from the looming mountain of Gran Sasso: a combination that allows for the development of its own characters on each district. Iole has staked everything on the historicity of the native varieties, raising mainly Montepulciano and a minority share of Trebbiano, with vines that easily reach 50 years of age and are tended with a biodynamic approach.

Iole Rabasco vinifies each plot separately and comes up with 13 different labels, in particularly limited runs, including reds, whites, rosés, Cerasuolo and sparkling sur lie. The way of working is all in subtraction, preferring delicacy and elegance rather than extraction, without, however, sacrificing a certain underlying richness. Fermentations are spontaneous and vinifications take place in steel or fiberglass, with a widespread and peculiar use of the demijohn for aging.