Montepulciano, Tuscany

First, the disclaimer this region practically requires: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano has nothing to do with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Nobile takes its name from the medieval Tuscan hill town of Montepulciano, while Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is named after a completely different grape variety grown in a region that doesn't even border Tuscany. Same word, two unrelated wines — and it's worth getting straight before anything else. 

The actual grape here is Sangiovese, just dressed in a local name. It's called Prugnolo Gentile locally — "prugnolo" from the Italian word for plum, "gentile" meaning gentle — and it's the same Sangiovese family behind Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino, expressed through Montepulciano's own particular hillsides. 

The history here is genuinely ancient, even by Tuscan standards. A document dated 789 records the cleric Arnipert granting farmland and a vineyard near the Castello di Policiano to a local church, and another document from October 1350 laid down the formal terms for trading and exporting Montepulciano wine — evidence that this was commercial wine, not just something monks drank with dinner, going back well over six centuries. The wine picked up serious literary cred in the 17th century when the poet Francesco Redi, in 1685, wrote an ode entirely dedicated to praising it, famously declaring "Montepulciano is the king of all wines!" 

The "Nobile" in the name has a surprisingly specific, recent origin. The phrase Vino Nobile di Montepulciano had been used informally since the 18th century, but it didn't actually appear on a label until 1930, when producer Adamo Fanetti — described as a stubborn man with a clear sense of his wine's quality — decided to add "Nobile" to distinguish it from the previously generic "Vino Rosso Scelto di Montepulciano," or "selected red wine of Montepulciano." That instinct paid off institutionally too: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano became one of the first Italian wines to receive DOC status in 1966, and on July 1, 1980, it became the very first wine in all of Italy to be awarded the top-tier DOCG classification — ahead of even Barolo and Brunello in the paperwork, if not in fame. 

For a long stretch afterward, that historic head start didn't translate into reputation. For years Nobile was viewed as something of an underdog in Tuscan wine circles, largely because rules once allowed up to 30% international grapes like Merlot, which made the wines rounder and fruitier but less distinctly its own. That's been changing: winemakers have increasingly shifted back toward traditional methods, leaning on Prugnolo Gentile alongside native grapes like Canaiolo and Colorino rather than international blending partners, restoring some of the wine's original character. 

The current rules require a minimum 70% Prugnolo Gentile, blended with 10–20% Canaiolo Nero and small amounts of other local varieties like Mammolo, which adds violet-like floral notes. The result is structured, age-worthy, genuinely distinct from its more famous Tuscan siblings. 

For BoundbyWine, Montepulciano is a great recommendation for anyone who loves Chianti and Brunello but hasn't worked their way to the third corner of the Sangiovese triangle yet — Italy's actual first DOCG wine, finally getting back to telling its own story rather than borrowing someone else's grapes