Cirelli

The People

Francesco Cirelli founded the estate in 2003 with his partner Michela, on land in the hills around Atri that had long been farmed the old mixed way: vines, olives, vegetables, and animals worked side by side. Going organic from day one wasn't a marketing decision so much as a philosophical one, an attempt to work with the specific character of this ground. That instinct has shaped every choice since, from the amphorae in the cellar to what else grows on the farm around them.

Francesco has become one of the more recognised voices in Abruzzo's natural wine movement, and the estate is now mentioned alongside regional pioneers like Emidio Pepe and Francesco Valentini. Michela runs the hospitality side, overseeing the agriturismo and glamping guests who visit the farm. Day to day, the vineyards and mixed farming are in the hands of farm manager Paolo Colaizzo. Cirelli wines now reach specialist importers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The Land

Cirelli's 22 hectares sit in the clay hills immediately around Atri, the same reddish, terracotta-coloured clay that gives Impruneta's pottery its colour, though the two places are hundreds of kilometres apart and there's no known geological link between them, just a shared kind of soil. Vineyards climb from about 150 to 300 metres above sea level, close enough to the Adriatic, roughly 8km away, that sea breezes cool the growing season, while the Gran Sasso mountains inland cool it further, without the frost risk of higher sites. That combination keeps days warm enough to ripen the grapes fully while nights stay cool, preserving the fruit's aromatics even as sugar and ripeness build.

The clay itself does real work too. It holds onto moisture through dry summers and releases minerals slowly into the vines' roots. Atri is Contrada Cona's own municipality, so this is about as local an estate as it gets, a short drive through the same hills, past the same red clay outcrops. On that ground, Cirelli grows Trebbiano d'Abruzzo and Pecorino for white wine and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo for red, and presses Montepulciano again, more gently, into a Cerasuolo, a rosé-style wine given only brief contact with its skins before pressing.

How They Work

The farm has been certified organic since it was founded, audited under ICEA, one of Italy's organic certification bodies: no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers, with copper and sulphur used only where genuinely needed to protect the vines. The same principle runs across the whole property. Alongside the vineyards, Cirelli raises livestock, grows vegetables, and produces its own olive oil, an integrated, old-style mixed farm that keeps the soil biodiverse and cuts reliance on outside inputs.

In the cellar, the amphorae do the real work: the earthenware vessels Francesco commissioned from Impruneta, the Tuscan town that has supplied wine vessels since the Renaissance. Unlike an oak barrel, the terracotta is unlined and adds no wood flavour of its own. Its walls are porous enough to let in a slow trickle of oxygen, so the wine develops complexity while staying a direct expression of the grape and the vintage it came from. It's a vessel older than either oak barrels or steel tanks, and Cirelli picked it specifically because it does less to the wine, not more.

Fermentation happens spontaneously, driven by wild yeasts already present on the grape skins and in the cellar air. Most wines go into bottle largely untouched afterward: unfined and unfiltered, meaning nothing is used to strip out sediment or haze before bottling, with only a minimal dose of sulphur added for stability. Cirelli also makes a second, lighter line, La Collina Biologica, from the same organic fruit but aged in steel rather than clay.

The Wines

The Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Anfora is the estate's flagship white and the clearest expression of the amphora method. Extended skin contact and slow oxygen exchange turn it amber-tinged rather than pale, with a textured, phenolic grip, the kind of tannic bite more typical of a red, running through a dried-herb, mineral finish. It rewards a slow glass more than a quick aperitivo pour.

The Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo Anfora is unusually structured for the style, closer in weight to a light red than a typical pale rosé, carrying cherry, iron, and spice notes from its brief time on Montepulciano skins. It's the wine most likely to surprise a visitor who arrives expecting something thinner.

The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Anfora is the estate's red, built around dark fruit, firm tannin, and the same mineral backbone that runs through the clay soils beneath the vines. Amphora ageing lets that sense of place come through more directly than new oak would.

Pecorino Anfora, from the aromatic white grape native to central Abruzzo and unrelated to the cheese of the same name, gets the same amphora treatment as the Trebbiano and comes out floral and saline, with a briny edge that nods to the Adriatic a few kilometres away.

Alongside the amphora range sits La Collina Biologica, a lighter, easier-drinking line made from the same organic fruit, spanning Trebbiano, Montepulciano, and Cerasuolo. It's the accessible on-ramp to the estate, the wine to try first before deciding whether the amphora style is for you.

Why Visit

Cirelli runs an agriturismo, a working farm that also offers rooms or meals to guests, plus an on-site glamping setup: one of the few properties in the Atri area with real accommodation built directly around a winery. Because the farm also produces olive oil, vegetables, and livestock, a visit can stretch well beyond a wine tasting into a proper farm afternoon, with the amphora cellar as the centrepiece.

Visits happen by prior arrangement rather than drop-in hours, so it's worth reaching out through the website ahead of time. Because Cirelli sits inside Atri's own boundaries, it's an easy one to fold into a day that starts or ends in town.