Here's a bright and accessible red wine to serve with a classic plate of amatriciana pasta. The Villa Medoro 2016 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Rosso del Duca shows fresh fruit, some underlying mineral tones and mild spice or tobacco at the back. This entry-level wine spends 12 months in oak, but you'd hardly know it. This is a streamlined but mid-weight effort that is cheerful and carefree in delivery. Some 60,000 bottles were made.

Accents of licorice snap and mocha play off plumped red cherry and smoke flavors in this balanced and easy-drinking, medium-bodied red. Fresh, lightly chewy finish. Drink now. 10,000 cases made, 320 cases imported.??–AN??Region: Italy / Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Select to Add

An elegant red, with fine-grained tannins framing a core of black cherry, cassis, graphite, ground spice, mineral and mocha flavors. Medium-bodied and fresh. Drink now through 2022. 300 cases imported.??–AN??Region: Italy / Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Select to Add

Villa Medoro delivers many good value wines, but this one is by far the best. The 2012 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Rosso del Duca offers a steady ensemble of dark fruit, spice, tobacco and leather. This was a warm vintage in Abruzzo and you can feel the softness of the fruit and the suppleness of the wine's texture. It ages in tonneaux for two years before bottling.

From a very hot vintage, the 2011 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Rosso del Duca offers dark fruit and chewy, soft consistency. The wine is extremely redolent of dark fruit, spice and tobacco. It's a soft and lush expression of the grape with yielding tannins and more dark fruit flavors on the close. The 2012 vintage of this wine has a lot more focus and linearity.