Italy · Abruzzo — Region-wide

Chiusa Grande

Organic Abruzzo estate farming three sites from Nocciano to 880-metre Capestrano, led by Franco D'Eusanio and family since 1991.

The producer

Chiusa Grande is a family-owned organic estate in the Pescara hills of Abruzzo, central Italy. The D'Eusanio family have been growing vines since the early 1960s, when founder Rocco D'Eusanio built a nursery business supplying other growers across central and southern Italy. In 1991 the family bought the Chiusa Grande country estate and began organic conversion immediately, releasing their first wine five years later. Franco D'Eusanio and his children Ilaria and Rocco now lead the operation across three vineyard sites and 25 export markets.

The bottle that travels internationally is Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a single-variety organic red reviewed by Decanter and awarded 89 points by Falstaff for the 2023 vintage. The estate farms without chemical herbicides, fertilises with manure, and keeps sulphite levels below the AIAB ceiling of 60 mg/l for reds. Five wines are made with no added sulphites at all, each with total sulphur dioxide below 10 mg/l. A second label, In Petra, covers wines macerated in sandstone vats from Pietranico. The Capestrano vineyard, managed jointly at roughly 880 metres near the Forca di Penne pass, sits among the highest cultivated sites in the region and remains an ongoing experiment in high-altitude Montepulciano.

Known for

Certified organic Montepulciano d'Abruzzo with low sulphite production and experimental high-altitude farming at Capestrano.

Notable facts

The story

From nursery to estate

Rocco D'Eusanio had spent thirty years in the trade before he made a wine with his own name on it. In the early 1960s he recognised that growers across central and southern Italy needed reliable vine stock, and he built a nursery business to supply them. He understood rootstocks, site conditions and varietal behaviour before he ever owned a hectare. Then, in 1991, when his family bought the Chiusa Grande country estate in the Pescara hills, he turned the operation entirely inward, converted the vineyards to organic farming immediately, and waited five years before releasing a bottle. The 1996 Chiusa Grande wine came from land that a vine supplier had chosen with the same attention he had once applied to other growers' plots, and the D'Eusanio family could claim, with some accuracy, that they had been preparing to make this wine for the entire decade they had spent learning what made vines thrive.

From the atlas

Chiusa Grande

At A Glance

The Producer

Chiusa Grande is a family-owned organic estate in Abruzzo, central Italy, farming vineyards across three separate sites in the Pescara hills and beyond. The D'Eusanio family have been growing vines since the early 1960s, when founder Rocco D'Eusanio built a nursery business supplying other growers across central and southern Italy. In 1991 the family bought the Chiusa Grande country estate and turned that trade knowledge inward, beginning organic conversion immediately and releasing their first wine five years later. The estate is now led by Franco D'Eusanio and his children Ilaria and Rocco.

The bottle that travels is Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo: a single-variety organic red reviewed independently by Decanter and Falstaff and sold across 25 countries. That export reach is unusual for an estate of this size and reflects a long commitment to organic certification at a time when Italian producers were still debating its commercial logic.

Place

Abruzzo runs down the central Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula, sheltered from Atlantic weather by the Gran Sasso and Maiella ranges. The Pescara hills, where Chiusa Grande's Nocciano winery sits, occupy the middle band of the region at 200 to 250 metres above sea level. At this elevation, warm summer days and cool nights preserve acidity in both white and red varieties, giving Montepulciano d'Abruzzo the freshness to age without the heaviness it can show at lower, hotter sites.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the region's defining red appellation, named for the grape rather than the Tuscan town and built entirely on the variety's thick-skinned, deeply coloured fruit. Its DOC rules govern minimum alcohol, yield and ageing requirements, but they leave considerable room for producers to choose between early-drinking, fruit-forward styles and more structured, extended-ageing wines. Chiusa Grande's Tommolo sits in the fruit-forward, accessible end of that range.

Soil And Site

Nocciano's 15 hectares surround the winery at 200 to 250 metres. The Cugnoli site, 17 kilometres to the south-east, adds 17 hectares divided among parcels with varied exposures and differing soil compositions, which gives the estate access to fruit with different ripening rhythms from the same vintage.

The most unusual part of Chiusa Grande's land is at Capestrano, near the Forca di Penne pass, where the estate manages a third vineyard jointly with Azienda Agricola Gioele Ciccone at roughly 880 metres above sea level. At that elevation, the growing season is noticeably longer, acidity is higher, and sugar accumulation is slower. The estate frames the Capestrano project as an experiment in high-altitude viticulture, one of the most elevated cultivated sites in the region.

Story

Rocco D'Eusanio did not begin as a wine producer. He began as a supplier: in the early 1960s, he built a business growing and selling vines to other growers across central and southern Italy. That trade gave the family a detailed understanding of vine behaviour across different soils and climates before they ever made a wine of their own.

The pivot came in 1991 when the D'Eusanio family acquired the Chiusa Grande estate in the Pescara hills. They began converting the vineyards to organic farming that same year, before organic certification carried the commercial weight it does today. The first Chiusa Grande wine appeared in 1996, a measured five years into that conversion. Franco D'Eusanio, Rocco's son, has led the estate through its expansion to three sites and into 25 export markets. His children Ilaria and Rocco now work within the family operation, making this a three-generation business built from a single founding decision to stop supplying the trade and start producing for it.

Vineyards And Cellar

Chiusa Grande farms without chemical herbicides. Fertilisation relies on organic material, particularly manure, working in the logic that soil health rather than foliar intervention sets fruit quality over the long term. AIAB certification sets the permitted sulphite ceiling at below 80 mg/l for whites and below 60 mg/l for reds, lower than the EU organic wine standard. Five wines are produced without any added sulphites, with total sulphur dioxide below 10 mg/l.

In the cellar, the estate uses must hyperoxygenation before alcoholic fermentation. The technique, developed in the 1970s, deliberately oxidises the most reactive compounds in freshly crushed must, so that the finished wine is more stable against oxygen exposure during and after bottling. All wines, including young vintage releases, go through malolactic fermentation, which converts sharp malic acid to softer lactic acid and contributes a rounder mid-palate across the range.

Wines

The Tommolo label is Chiusa Grande's main market line. Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a single-variety organic red from fruit grown at Nocciano and Cugnoli. The 2023 vintage received 89 points from Falstaff. The 2021 Decanter review confirmed the wine as a structured Montepulciano with a drinking window extending to at least 2027, showing that the low-sulphite, malolactic-fermented approach produces fruit capable of short-term ageing rather than only immediate drinking. Tommolo also extends to a Chardonnay from the Nocciano site.

A second label, In Petra, covers wines macerated in sandstone vats from Pietranico, a village in the Pescara hills. Sandstone is a porous material that allows slow micro-oxygenation during maceration without imparting oak flavour, producing wines with softer tannins and a rounder texture than barrel-aged equivalents.

The estate also produces five wines in the no-added-sulphite category, each with total sulphur dioxide below 10 mg/l. These are made from parcels the cellar can follow most closely from harvest selection through to bottling, giving the winemaking team the confidence to forgo sulphite addition entirely.

In The Glass

Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo opens with dark cherry and dried plum, with a faint earthy note that comes with the variety's thick skins rather than oak ageing. In the mouth, the tannins are firm but not coarse: Montepulciano builds its grip from grape phenolics rather than wood, and at Chiusa Grande's sulphite levels, that fruit character sits clearly at the front. The acidity is moderate, kept livelier by the Pescara hills elevation than it would be on warmer coastal sites. Malolactic fermentation smooths the mid-palate without flattening it, and the finish carries a warm, slightly bitter note typical of the grape.

The Chardonnay from Nocciano is a different register: lighter in body, with citrus and orchard fruit and the softness that comes from malolactic conversion. The In Petra wines, macerated in sandstone rather than oak, show more textural weight on the palate without the vanilla or toast that wood would add.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It is a single-variety DOC red from certified organic Montepulciano fruit grown at Nocciano and Cugnoli, fermented with full malolactic conversion and bottled at sulphite levels well below the EU organic ceiling. The wine gives dark cherry fruit, firm grape tannin and a clean, slightly earthy finish. It carries enough acidity to work with food and enough fruit concentration to drink on its own. The 2023 vintage holds 89 Falstaff points; the 2021 was judged structured enough to drink through 2027. This is the bottle that shows what Chiusa Grande does: organic farming at low sulphite levels, producing Montepulciano with genuine character rather than processed softness.

Anecdote

Rocco D'Eusanio had spent thirty years in the trade before he made a wine with his own name on it. In the early 1960s he recognised that growers across central and southern Italy needed reliable vine stock, and he built a nursery business to supply them. He understood rootstocks, site conditions and varietal behaviour before he ever owned a hectare. Then, in 1991, when his family bought the Chiusa Grande country estate in the Pescara hills, he did something that most vine nurserymen never do: he turned the operation entirely inward, converted the vineyards to organic farming immediately, and waited five years before releasing a bottle. The 1996 Chiusa Grande wine came from land that a vine supplier had chosen with the same attention he had once applied to other people's land, which is why the D'Eusanio family could claim, with some accuracy, that they had been preparing to make this wine since the decade they had spent learning what made vines thrive.

Final Word

Chiusa Grande is worth knowing for three overlapping reasons. First, the organic commitment dates from 1991, before that choice carried obvious commercial logic in Abruzzo. Second, the sulphite discipline is genuinely strict: the AIAB ceiling is lower than the EU standard, and five wines reach the no-added threshold entirely. Third, the Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo holds independent scores across multiple vintages and reaches 25 markets, making it verifiable rather than merely claimed. The Capestrano site at 880 metres adds a future dimension: high-altitude Montepulciano from Abruzzo is not yet a known category, and the D'Eusanio family is already there.

Sources

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