Italy · Abruzzo — Region-wide

Ciavolich Azienda Agricola

A family estate at Loreto Aprutino in the province of Pescara, Abruzzo, farming Montepulciano, Trebbiano, Cococciola, and Pecorino across fifty hectares split between two properties, with a winery history going back to 1853.

The producer

The Ciavolich family traces its roots to Bulgarian wool merchants who settled in Miglianico, in the province of Chieti, around 1560. Francesco Ciavolich built the family's first winery there in 1853, an underground cellar that ran continuously for ninety years until the autumn of 1943. The production heart is now at Contrada Salmacina, Loreto Aprutino, where 35 hectares of vineyards sit around the farmstead and winery, half trained to traditional pergola Abruzzese from massal selection cuttings, half to Guyot from clonal selection. A second property at Pianella adds fifteen hectares, planted from 2000.

The estate farms Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Cococciola, and Pecorino. The cellar works with stainless steel, concrete, oak, and terracotta amphorae, choosing the vessel wine by wine rather than by range convention. Terracotta allows slow micro-oxygenation without transferring oak character. The Fosso Cancelli range takes this further: spontaneous fermentation in terracotta, oak, and concrete, built to recall an older Abruzzese winemaking tradition and shaped around the estate's indigenous grape varieties and older vine material.

Known for

Fosso Cancelli, a spontaneous-fermentation range in terracotta, concrete, and oak, built around the estate's indigenous grapes and old massal-selected vines.

Notable facts

The story

The Last Harvest Underground

In the autumn of 1943 the German command installed its local headquarters in the Ciavolich family's residence in Miglianico. The family was permitted to shelter in the ancient underground winery beneath the house. During the occupation the cave was extended to connect with the nearby convent of the Suore di Sant'Anna, giving the tunnel a second exit and a second purpose as an air-raid shelter. The harvest that autumn went ahead in those conditions, the grapes pressed and fermented below ground while soldiers occupied the house above. On 8 December 1943 the SS ordered the family out. They complied, left Miglianico, and did not return to production in the old underground cellar. The 1943 vintage was the last one made there. The family came back after the war, but the Miglianico winery stayed quiet. The next generation moved their work to Loreto Aprutino, to the estate inherited from Donna Ernestina in the 1960s, and planted the vines still producing today.

From the atlas

Ciavolich Azienda Agricola

At A Glance

Estate: Ciavolich Azienda Agricola Location: Contrada Salmacina, Loreto Aprutino, province of Pescara, Abruzzo Grapes: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Cococciola, Pecorino Vineyards: 35 hectares at Loreto Aprutino; 15 hectares at Pianella Key Range: Fosso Cancelli First Bottle: Fosso Cancelli Pecorino

The Producer

The Ciavolich family has been making wine in Abruzzo since 1853, but the estate now at work in the province of Pescara carries a longer history behind it. The family traces back to Bulgarian wool merchants who fled the advance of the Saracens and settled in Miglianico, in the province of Chieti, around 1560. Three centuries later, Francesco Ciavolich built the family's first winery directly opposite his home in Miglianico, processing grapes from the surrounding land. That underground cellar ran continuously until December 1943.

The production heart today is Contrada Salmacina at Loreto Aprutino, where the farmstead and winery sit inside a block of 35 hectares of vineyards, three of olive groves, and ten of arable land. A second property at Pianella adds fifteen hectares, six planted to Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and one to Pecorino, both trained to pergola Abruzzese. The two estates together offer Ciavolich an address spread across inland Abruzzo, farming the region's principal grape varieties alongside the indigenous Cococciola, a white grape seldom found outside the Chieti and Pescara zones.

Place

Loreto Aprutino sits inland in the province of Pescara, on elevated terrain between the Gran Sasso massif to the west and the Adriatic coast to the east. The position matters to the wines. Nights here are cooler than on the coastal plain, which extends the growing season for Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and preserves acidity in the white grapes. The Masseria del Vino farmstead catches the thermal shift between mountain air and sea breeze across the full ripening arc.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is Abruzzo's most important red grape appellation, covering the whole region, and it is the anchor of both Ciavolich properties. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo covers the broad base of white wine production in the zone. Cococciola, aromatic and indigenous to this part of central Italy, and Pecorino, a mountain-origin white of high natural acidity grown natively in the Apennine foothills of Abruzzo and the Marche, give the estate's white range something the larger regional producers do not routinely offer.

Soil And Site

Contrada Salmacina at Loreto Aprutino is the primary site, with the estate's 35 vineyard hectares arranged around the farmstead. The Pianella property, fifteen hectares planted from 2000, adds a second growing block roughly twenty kilometres away, also inland and at elevation. Loreto Aprutino's soils in this part of Pescara province are generally clay-rich with calcareous subsoil, consistent with the inland Abruzzese hill country rather than the lighter, sandier soils closer to the coast.

Story

The Miglianico winery that Francesco Ciavolich opened in 1853 became one of the oldest operating cellars in Abruzzo. It ran for ninety years, through the growth of the regional wine trade and through two world wars, until the autumn of 1943 ended it.

After the war the family held onto the Miglianico property but did not restore it to production. The next chapter opened with an inheritance in the 1960s. From the estate of Donna Ernestina, the family received approximately fifty hectares at Loreto Aprutino in the province of Pescara. Giuseppe Ciavolich planted Montepulciano, Trebbiano, and Cococciola on the new land, establishing the grape mix still central to the estate today. Those 1960s plantings, now entering their seventh decade, have become a resource the estate is actively working to preserve: an ongoing programme aims to recover and propagate the genetic heritage of the oldest surviving vines before it is lost.

The cellar philosophy that developed at Contrada Salmacina reflects the same attachment to continuity. The estate does not follow a single material or method uniformly. Some wines are born and aged in one vessel; others move between stainless steel, concrete, oak, and terracotta during their development. The choice of vessel is made wine by wine, not by range position or market convention.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 35 Loreto Aprutino hectares divide evenly: half planted to pergola Abruzzese trained from massal selection cuttings, half to Guyot trained from clonal selection. Pergola Abruzzese is the traditional regional training system, with the canopy extended horizontally to shade the grapes from afternoon heat, moderating ripeness and preserving freshness. Massal selection, drawing cuttings from the best-performing old vines on the estate rather than from certified nursery clones, is the route the estate uses to maintain genetic diversity in the older half of the vineyard.

In the cellar, terracotta amphorae serve two roles: fermentation and ageing. The material is permeable, allowing slow micro-oxygenation without introducing the aromatic compounds that oak transfers to wine. Oak casks of 225, 500, and 1,500 litres are used in the same spirit, as permeable containers for gradual stabilisation rather than as flavour sources. Stainless steel handles wines where freshness and reductive protection matter. Concrete rounds out the toolkit, used for both fermentation and maturation.

Wines

Ciavolich operates two range identities that use the same vineyards and cellar but make different choices about fermentation and vessel.

The main range draws on the full cellar material. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from both properties is the red backbone, a grape with deep colour, firm tannin, and dark fruit when grown on inland Abruzzese clay at elevation. The whites from Trebbiano d'Abruzzo and Cococciola work with the freshness that the cooler inland nights preserve: Trebbiano tends toward body and length, Cococciola toward aromatic definition and lighter acidity.

The Fosso Cancelli range is a separate project built around spontaneous fermentation in terracotta, oak, and concrete. The aim is wines that recall an older Abruzzese winemaking tradition, made without cultured yeasts and in materials that predate stainless steel. Fosso Cancelli Pecorino, grown on the Colline Pescaresi hillsides above the Pescara valley, has been reviewed twice by independent critics. The 2015 vintage showed white flower, green herb, stone fruit, and pear, with an almond finish and round texture. The 2021 vintage brought mineral drive, golden apple, peach, hazelnut, and lemon oil, with a creamy mid-palate and a focused close. The Fosso Cancelli Montepulciano and Trebbiano complete the range, spontaneously fermented in the same ancient vessels.

In The Glass

Across the Fosso Cancelli whites, Pecorino gives the clearest signal of what the Loreto Aprutino elevation and the terracotta fermentation deliver together. The grape's natural acidity, high even by Abruzzese standards, comes through as a taut, mineral line through the mid-palate. The spontaneous fermentation and terracotta vessel add texture: a slight creaminess and weight that softens the edges without flattening the acid. Aromatically the wine moves from white stone fruit and green herb on the nose toward hazelnut and lemon oil as it opens in the glass. The finish is focused and dry, with the almond note that Pecorino carries when it has seen some wood contact.

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo in the Fosso Cancelli style shows the grape's characteristic depth of colour and firm tannin, but the spontaneous fermentation introduces a wilder edge of dark cherry and dried herb that the controlled-yeast version does not have. The terracotta and oak containers stabilise the wine gradually without softening it artificially, so the tannin stays present and the fruit stays dark and dense through the finish.

A Bottle To Understand It

Fosso Cancelli Pecorino is the right first bottle. Pecorino is a mountain grape native to the Apennine foothills of Abruzzo and the Marche, and at Ciavolich it is grown on the Colline Pescaresi hillsides and fermented spontaneously in wood. The wine has real grip: mouth-watering acidity, stone fruit, a creamy middle, and a dry, mineral close. It shows what the estate does in the cellar more clearly than any other wine in the range, because the terracotta and oak fermentation and the lack of cultured yeasts are written into the texture and the finish. It is also the bottle that sets Ciavolich apart from mainstream Abruzzo most cleanly. Pecorino at this level is rarely found outside specialist retailers, and the Fosso Cancelli version, with its deliberate older-method production, gives a clear reason to seek it out.

Anecdote

In the autumn of 1943 the German command installed its local headquarters in the Ciavolich family's residence in Miglianico. The family was permitted to shelter in the ancient underground winery beneath. During the occupation the cave was extended to connect with the nearby convent of the Suore di Sant'Anna, giving the tunnel a second exit and a second use as an air-raid shelter. The harvest that autumn went ahead in those conditions, the grapes pressed and fermented below ground while soldiers occupied the house above. On 8 December 1943 the SS ordered the family out. They complied, left Miglianico, and did not return to production in the old underground cellar. The 1943 vintage was the last one made there. The family came back after the war, but the Miglianico winery stayed quiet; the next generation moved their work to Loreto Aprutino, to the estate they had inherited from Donna Ernestina, and planted the vines that are still producing today.

Final Word

Ciavolich is an Abruzzese estate with a longer and stranger past than most wine histories record. The Bulgarian wool merchant origins, the 1853 underground winery, the wartime harvest, the shift to Loreto Aprutino: each chapter left something in the ground. The vines from the 1960s plantings are now old enough to demand preservation. The Fosso Cancelli range is the most direct expression of what the estate thinks wine in Abruzzo should taste like: spontaneous, vessel-honest, and unwilling to follow what the market wants from the region. Fosso Cancelli Pecorino is where to start.

Sources

Open Ciavolich Azienda Agricola in the interactive map →