The 2009 Chiusa Grande Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Tommolo comes from Trader Joe's and is just $5.99. The bottle says it is made with organic grapes, which seems rather incredible for the price point. The wine is imported by D'Aquino Italian Importing, but the wine is not listed on their website. (This is the same importer for a number of other wines exclusive to Trader Joe's and most of those are not listed on their site either.) There is a Tommolo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo listed on the Chiusa Grande website showing a different label, although it sounds like the same wine.
Montepulciano d'abruzzo is made from the Montepulciano grape in Italy. The D'Abruzzo region is one of the more popular for this grape.
We found this to be a very nice, easy to drink wine. At $5.99 it is a great value. The taste was by no means remarkable, yet quite pleasant with a fruity (but not overwhelmingly so) flavor. This one will hold up very nicely with tomato sauces making it an affordable pairing for Italian dishes.
See a listing of local retailers selling this wine here.
Overall Rating: 7.0
All ratings use a simple 10 point scale with 10 being the best. Find out more about my rating systemhere and check out the Interactive Wine Ranking to find all my reviews! You can sort by type of wine, cost, rating, etc. in the interactive spreadsheet.