Fattoria La Valentina: Awards, No Dutch Importer
Fattoria La Valentina from Abruzzo won Tre Bicchieri again, plus high scores from Suckling and Vinous. I found no Dutch shop selling it. What I tasted.
1,287 bottles and 23 magnums. That is the whole run of Docheio 2022, according to the producer’s own data sheet. The 2024 vintage of that wine has just been given Tre Bicchieri, the top award in Italy’s Gambero Rosso guide.
The news came by email this week from Simone Tremiti, export manager at Fattoria La Valentina in Abruzzo. He attached recent scores from three international publications. Separately from that email, he told me recently that the estate is still looking for an importer in the Netherlands.
I tasted five different La Valentina wines last year, seven bottles in all. Docheio was not one of them.
What was awarded
Docheio is a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from San Valentino, in the hills of the Majella. The grapes ferment for four months in a terracotta jar, partly with stems, and stay in that jar for another six. Alongside Tre Bicchieri, the 2024 got five grape bunches from Bibenda.
The estate gives no figure for the 2024, but it will not be much more. An importer who takes on La Valentina would probably get a few cases of it, if any.
The other numbers cover wines that exist in real volume. In June 2026 Vinous gave Docheio 2024 93 points, Bellovedere Riserva 2022 also 93 and the Cerasuolo Superiore Spelt 2025 92. James Suckling tasted eight wines under the La Valentina and Binomio labels and scored them between 91 and 97, with 95 for that same Cerasuolo Spelt. Wine Enthusiast gave Docheio 2022 a 91 in August.
Two caveats. These are the overviews the estate sends out itself; a producer mails its good scores and you never see the rest. And when eight wines, from entry level to flagship, all land between 91 and 97, the number says little about the difference between those bottles.
What I tasted myself
I don’t give points on VinoVonk, so I can’t put a number next to theirs. I can tell you what was in the glass.
In my tasting of three Montepulcianos the entry wine and the top wine had the same hand: soft, clean fruit, careful extraction. The Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2022 had black cherry, plum and a freshness this grape does not always deliver.
In the Spelt Riserva 2020 the oak sat under the fruit. The Bellovedere 2020 had power without weight.
The Cerasuolo 2024 had a grapefruit bitterness that made it interesting, and that will put off anyone after a soft, fruity rosé. The Pecorino 2024 was salty and taut.
Look at what exactly was rated. Some are wines I never had: the Cerasuolo Spelt, Docheio and Binomio. The rest are newer harvests than my bottles, such as Cerasuolo and Pecorino 2025, Bellovedere 2022 and Montepulciano 2024. I have not tasted what the critics scored.
Fattoria La Valentina in brief
The estate started in 1990 in the hills above Spoltore, close to Pescara. Owners Sabatino, Roberto and Andrea Di Properzio have run it since 1994. All vineyards are in the province of Pescara, from the coast at Spoltore up to San Valentino at 350 to 400 metres, and they are certified organic.
In 2021 Gambero Rosso wrote that sixty percent of production is exported and that the wines are sold in more than fifty countries. The United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom are the main markets.
The Netherlands is not mentioned. It is a list of main markets from 2021, though.
Why is it not in the Netherlands?
I don’t know, and Simone did not say. I can only describe what an importer would get.
A certified organic estate with a range from entry level to flagship. At German web shop Superiore the Trebbiano 2025 is €8.90, the Montepulciano 2024 €10.50, the Cerasuolo Spelt 2025 €15.90 and the Bellovedere 2021 €39. Those are German consumer prices, before shipping.
My guess at what works against it: in the Netherlands Montepulciano d’Abruzzo has the image of a cheap supermarket bottle. A €39 version needs explaining at the table. And one of the most awarded wines is the one there is almost none of.
If you want to taste now
Superiore lists the Netherlands among the countries it ships to. I have not ordered there myself, so I can’t speak for delivery times or costs.
Start with the regular Montepulciano or the Cerasuolo. The house style is already in there, for around ten euros. At Superiore that Cerasuolo, the 2025 Suckling gave 94 points, is €9.50. Docheio is not on its list.
If you are an importer reading this: Fattoria La Valentina is looking for you. The contact details are on lavalentina.it.
Sources
- Contact with Simone Tremiti, export manager at Fattoria La Valentina, about the search for a Dutch importer
- Email from Simone Tremiti, 7 October 2026, with the overviews from Vinous (June 2026), James Suckling (2026) and Wine Enthusiast (August 2026)
- Fattoria La Valentina, history and Docheio 2022 data sheet: lavalentina.it
- Gambero Rosso International, “Top Italian Wines Roadshow. La Valentina and the ‘atomic’ Montepulciano”, 19 January 2021: gamberorossointernational.com
- Superiore.de, prices and shipping countries checked on 7 October 2026: superiore.de
- My own tasting notes, 2025
This article is based on a mailing from Fattoria La Valentina and on my own tasting notes. The bottles I tasted in 2025 were press samples from the estate; nothing was paid for this piece. I took the photo at the top myself.
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