The Wine Club · Grape Discovery Masterclass

Pecorino

The Sheep's GrapeAbruzzo, Italy · Ancient — nearly extinct by the 1980s, rediscovered in the 1990s

The Origin Story

The name will make you smile. Pecora means sheep in Italian, and the story goes that shepherds driving their flocks through the Apennine mountains of Abruzzo would watch the animals seek out the wild Pecorino vines — drawn, apparently, to the sweetness of the ripening grapes. Whether the sheep had particularly good taste or simply good instincts, the grape took their name and kept it.

What the shepherds could not have known was that their casual viticulture was preserving one of central Italy's most distinctive white varieties. By the 1980s, Pecorino had nearly disappeared — crowded out by higher-yielding international varieties and forgotten by a wine industry chasing volume over character. It survived in isolated mountain vineyards, tended by farmers who had simply never stopped growing it.

The rediscovery came in the 1990s, when a handful of Abruzzo producers recognised what they had. Pecorino was not just surviving — it was producing wines of genuine complexity: full-bodied for a white, with high natural acidity, a distinctive floral lift, and a finish of bitter almond that no other variety in the region could replicate.

For Manila drinkers who find Pinot Grigio too thin and Chardonnay too heavy, Pecorino sits in exactly the right place — structured enough to hold its own with food, aromatic enough to drink on its own, and carrying a story that is genuinely worth telling at the table.

Tasting Profile

BodyFullAcidityHigh

Citrus PithWhite PeachSalineAlmond FinishWhite Blossom

Pecorino produces full-bodied whites with a distinctive personality — more structured and aromatic than most Italian whites at this price point. Expect high natural acidity that keeps the wine fresh despite its weight, a floral lift that sets it apart from its Trebbiano neighbours, and a clean bitter almond finish that makes it one of the most food-friendly whites in the Abruzzo canon. It is not a subtle grape — it has opinions — and that is precisely what makes it interesting.

In Comparison

If you like

Chardonnay

Ranges from lean and mineral in Chablis to rich and buttery in California — the oak is optional, the quality is not. More versatile than its reputation suggests and better with food than most people give it credit for.

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Try

Pecorino

Chardonnay weight without the oak influence — white peach, citrus blossom, and a clean mineral backbone. High-altitude precision with genuine body.

This is your kinilaw wine. The high acidity mirrors the calamansi marinade, the white peach fruit lifts the sweetness of the fresh fish, and the mineral backbone keeps the whole dish tasting clean and precise. In Abruzzo they drink Pecorino with brodetto — a sharp, tomato-and-vinegar fish stew that demands exactly this kind of acidity. Also exceptional with grilled lapu-lapu, butter-poached sugpo, and anything simply prepared from the sea.