Zaccagnini: The Stick and the Story

If you’ve spent any time perusing wine shops overseas, you’ve likely seen Zaccagnini, and now we’re SO excited to be bringing it here to NZ so we can join the party!

If its unique ‘hand drawn’ label wasn’t eye-catching enough, its trademark ‘Tralcetto’ twig certainly is. The combination of both makes this line from Zaccagnini a very exciting conversation-starter indeed, and that’s before you even open it!

The old world regions have some mighty fine drops but they also often come with mighty fine price tags. Top end Tuscany and big-time Bordeaux are real end-game wines for serious collectors but at Dhall & Nash we take great delight in unearthing stand-out drops across the spectrum. Well-established but comparatively less “glitzy” regions like Abruzzo have all the savoir-faire to produce absolute stars that offer extremely broad approachability with much friendlier price tags, as this newcomer so perfectly exemplifies. 

Front and centre on the bottle (and now front and centre on this blog), you can’t get to Zaccagnini without going past the twig.

Every bottle of Zaccagnini’s ‘Tralcetto’ range has a twig from the vineyards hand-tied to the neck. The Zaccagnini team are extremely passionate artisans with a deep love and respect for their land. This is a quality we find reflected in so many of our winery partners, and one we actively look for when selecting them, but the famous Zaccagnini twig is their special extra way to bring the vine to us and to share in celebrating and honouring the work the vineyards and the people put in to creating the wines.

But the iconic Tralcetto has become so much more in its representation of the people and the land. It is a symbol, an extended branch (literally) from the makers to the consumers, and acts as a promise…

After many generations of grapegrowing in the Abruzzo region, Cantina Zaccagnini officially started in 1978 as ‘Azienda Agricol Ciccio Zaccagnini’ and made around 1000 bottles a year. When Ciccio’s son, Marcello came on board shortly after its inception, he decided to mold the company producing high quality Italian wine with a young and innovative style. 

This proved a wise move. Heritage in Italy is important, and the traditional respect for the soil and vine is inherent, but by sharing that with the world in the way Marcello spearheaded, they’ve grown exponentially.

From their humble 1000 bottle beginnings, Zaccagnini now produces around 500,000 cases of premium wine a year. “My family were grape farmers, I was young – not even 20 years old – and I decided to take a different direction – making and bottling wine,” Marcello explained to Winesu.

“There are about 150 of us working in the winery, 90% are people who live here where I was born – a small village with just 250 inhabitants. Almost the whole village works with us here in the winery.” 

“’Total Quality’ is the fundamental element in keeping Zaccagnini successful,” Zaccagnini states, “We want to satisfy our customers because ultimately, they are the ones that guarantee the development and progress of our company.”

Zaccagnini’s winemaker and enologist, Concezio Marulli, is meticulous in applying the ‘total quality’ ethos championed by Zaccagnini. He is constantly researching new vine clones and fermentation techniques in the state of the art, on-premises laboratory.

“High quality wine is born in the vineyard, grows in the cellar, and becomes noble by bottle aging,’’ he told Syngenta Group. 

Concezio is passionate about the region and its ecological health. Speaking to Winesu, he explains that “the microclimate here is exceptional. We’re in the area of Abruzzo which is most suited to wine growing.”

Montepulciano understandably holds a special interest for him, being the flagship wine of the region and of Zaccagnini, “It is soft and velvety with great persistence. The mission for this wine was to make a balanced Montepulciano.”

‘Wine, the Art of Man’ is on every label of Zaccagnini, and it’s not just a throw away statement. 

A real point of difference for Zaccagnini is the melding of art and wine in their work. Wine is a form of art, so naturally the Zaccagnini team is passionate about art and the community beyond the wine too. It’s all interconnected.

When Marcello Zaccagnini started to really look at how to make this wine, he wanted it to be something more. It started with the wine itself, “The problem wasn’t just about how to transform the grapes, the pressing and things, but how to style the finished product,” he explained. “Create a label, the packaging… a design to best represent me.”

Then, it expanded. Now, Zaccagnini is known for its extensive art and sculpture collection at the winery. Its aim was to become a cultural reference point for artists, musicians, writers and enthusiasts. Some of the important events that the winery has hosted include the “Premio Nazionale Giuseppe Prisco” and the “Tralcetto dell’Amicizia”. 

“The vineyards and Cantina Zaccagnini are places where you can breathe art, every day. This is why we have created a unique gallery where you can stroll among the works of contemporary artists such as Joseph Beuys, Mimmo Paladino, Pietro Cascella, Diego Esposito, Bizhan Bassiri, Franco Summa, David Bade, Gino Sabatini Odoardi, Simone Zaccagnini, Sandro Visca, Dino Colalongo and Mauro Berrettini.”

“The winery… is a unique example of wine production area turned into a museum of contemporary art,” states blogger Abruzzo4foodies, “Visiting the wine estate is a pure joy to any art and wine lover.”

“A Fusion of Art, Soul, and Sustainability,”

the wine blogger ‘Wine Divaa’ muses. “Stepping into Cantina Zaccagnini was an immersive experience where art and the spirit of Abruzzo intertwine… I was captivated by some of the pieces and how they appeal to their own history. A mural in one of their barrel rooms showcases the Zaccagnini history from the foundation date until the 2000s and how the ups and downs are portrayed to remember the challenges on their path.”

The famous hand-tied stick was initially a tribute to the German artist, Joseph Beuys, who has inspired a lot of practices at the winery in their mission to work with nature, not against it. 

As well as being an influential and inspiring artist involved with the estate from its early inception, Joseph Beuys was an early proponent for sustainability. His artwork was performative and thought-provoking, with the aim to heal the broken relationship between humanity and nature. He felt that incessant rationality was overtaking emotion and connection, and this rift was separating us from nature.

The Zaccagnini family was good friends with Beuys, and even hosted a presentation of his famous campaign, “Defense of Nature”, which he called a “social sculpture” – essentially a performance that was well documented to bring awareness to the cause.

This campaign has since gained great attention. Official photographs from it are housed in the Tate, in the ARTIST ROOMS Collection and exhibitions are still being shown of this work at renowned galleries such as the Guggenheim and The Broad to this day.

Whilst the Guggenheim is an excellent place to leave a legacy, Beuys’s influence lives on in the Zaccagnini winery too. Not just in its ethos, but physically and tangibly. He frequently visited the winery throughout the early and mid 80s, and thus it’s now home to a number of his pieces.

Concezio Marulli believes their position within Abruzzo lends them the unique privilege of being able to maintain meaningful production without compromising the quality of the environment. 

“This microclimate reduces the number of treatments the grapes need,” he told Winesu, “That means a more sustainable and healthier environment. The winery works in accordance with all quality standards and certificates, so we can monitor the quality of our water, air and soils. 

We’ve created a green oasis in this area by planting 500 oak trees following the philosophy of the German artist, Joseph Beuys, working in “defense of nature”.” 

Decanter paints a romantic vision of Zaccagnini’s corner of the world, “In the rolling hills of Bolognano, the Zaccagnini winery is set against the backdrop of the distinctive regional landscape of rolling hills of Bolognano, the sea and the Apennine mountains, with the historic Romanesque abbey of San Clemente a Casauria nearby.”

Abruzzo is on the eastern coast of Italy, on the ‘calf’ of the boot. It’s a region defined by its unique combination of mountainous terrain and proximity to the ocean – truly the best of both worlds. 

Tuscany, to the regions North-West, is more well-known internationally than Abruzzo. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the long Adriatic coastline that the Abruzzo region boasts is a hugely popular tourist destination and thus, a lot of the wine is enjoyed locally on the spot by visitors! But it’s also thought that seeing as the mountains separated the region from Rome to the west, they had less of an influence so were able to forge their own vinous identity, distinct from the roman-inspired Tuscan Sangiovese offerings. 

Whilst it is overshadowed as a winemaking region, it’s no small player. It produces more than 22 million cases of wine each year, making it the fifth most productive region in Italy.

Around 21.5% of the Abruzzo production is ‘denominazione di origine controllata’ (DOC), and more than two-thirds of the region’s wine is produced by co-operatives or sold to negociants in other Italian wine regions.

The mountainous terrain that defines the region is a secret weapon in producing the delicious, food-friendly bottlings that it’s known for. Some of the vineyards are over 600m above sea level, and the ruggedness and altitude lends a lot of protection and shelter from storms from the west. 

The Mediterranean climate (courtesy of the expansive Adriatic coastline,) and dry, oceanic breeze over the summer can produce prodigious yields from the vineyards.

Vintage variation can be significant, though, due to the varied rainfall the region receives. While the storms that approach from the west are often thwarted by the mountains, the eastern storms are a different story. They can get ‘trapped’ by the mountains and can stay over the region for longer periods of time. Some of the 1990’s vintages from Abruzzo were pretty stressful given some good deluges. 

Abruzzo’s flagship wine is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from their native Montepulciano grapes (not to be confused with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany, which is primarily Sangiovese from the village called Montepulciano). 

Montepulciano has a reputation for being an easy-drinking wine. It’s fruity and forward with soft tannins and a light peppery interest. 

Zaccagnini – like many of the wineries in this region – holds Montepulciano close to its heart.

“It is the wine which Zaccagnini started with, which he invested in most,” Concezio Marulli explains. “The color is extracted from the skins through maceration for seven to ten days at a controlled temperature. The most important step is the aging in oak casks, which creates a unique wine. It is soft and velvety with great persistence. The mission for this wine was to make a balanced Montepulciano. It has this ruby red color with some purplish reflections. Its fruity bouquet is reminiscent of blackberry and violets in the mouth. It’s smooth – very pleasing – with great persistence. An absolutely harmonious wine.”

Montepulciano is beloved by locals and visitors, and is enjoyed thoroughly in the region. It’s incredibly food friendly and naturally sings alongside Italian cuisine, though it’s a bit of an over-achiever for matching. Enzo Vogliolo, Zaccagnini’s CCO, finds it incredible and thrilling seeing it make waves overseas, telling Winesu that it’s “A very versatile wine which pairs well with lots of cuisine, born to accompany Italian cooking. Now it is served with food from all over the world!”

Together with Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is one of the most widely exported DOC wines from Italy, particularly to the United States, of which Zaccagnini is a notable leader.

Abruzzo’s white signature grape is Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. It’s a high-yielding and reliable varietal that produces versatile, light-bodied wines with soft fruit, floral flavours and crisp acidity.

Similar to Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Trebbiano has struggled to distance itself from its false Tuscan counterpart. It was once thought to have been a clone of “Trebbiano Toscano” but is now understood to actually be a southern Italian white grape called ‘Bombino bianco’.

“Its origins are certainly Italian, but the exact location remains uncertain due to numerous places that reference this name. Trebbiano’s widespread popularity is due to its resistance to diseases and pests, its adaptability, and its high productivity,” explains Gambero Rosso.

Trebbiano’s reputation is not ‘glitzy’ but it is consistent, rarely blowing people away but similarly rarely disappointing anyone, and in fact its reputation is undergoing somewhat of a transcendence at the moment, with Gambero Rosso noting that “Trebbiano is making a comeback, with producers aiming to restore this classic white with versions released after at least a year. We found complex and nuanced wines that grew more interesting with age.”

So it would seem the world of wine is catching up with what the locals already know: you can’t go wrong with Trebbiano.