Vino Nobile di Montepulciano to be just-plain Nobile

[Robin Garr]

From a conversation on Facebook among Italian wine guys who are in a position to know:

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
has finally changed its name
it is now officially called
" N O B I L E "

Approved by the Consorzio, apparently, to end long-standing confuscion with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo; no rush to run it by Brussels since the Italian parliament hasn't yet done the legislative thing to conform DOCG with EU naming regs.

https://www.facebook.com/max.avignonesi ... 2191618038

Personally, I don't find either name to be great. The original one is just too darn long and confuses a grape variety with a place name (not made from Montepulciano!) and the second sounds like something out of Lolita (nubile?).

But that still leaves Rosso di Montepulciano to confuse with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Or are they going to change that to Rosso, thus claiming TWO general-purpose adjectives as special names.

But that still leaves Rosso di Montepulciano to confuse with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Or are they going to change that to Rosso, thus claiming TWO general-purpose adjectives as special names.

Changing the Rosso to Ignobile

There is an inevitable confusion between Montepulciano the place and Montepulciano the grape. Just calling the wine from the place Nobile or whatever for the Rosso simply ducks the problem. People will be suspicious of a name like that and will want to know its origin, so back to Montepulciano.

IMO the place makes more "noble" wines than the grape.

With Tim

It seems odd to drop the geographic name.

Isn't price a good enough indicator for those who can't remember the wine or grape variety comes before the location?

Are the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano producers losing business because potential customers are buying the Montepulciano grape?

Can't see it myself...