Marche
| Maybe this sounds a little strange to the ears of those who come to Marche and travel along the Adriatic coast. Here Verdicchio thrives in the many seafood restaurants, and the amphora-shaped bottle is always a certainty. The bottle has been given a popular name after the beautiful Italian actress (Gina) Lollobrigida (because of the graceful shape) and it is an equally popular element at the table, as the actress was on the screen: fresh, charming and very welcoming. Maturation brings out a certain minerality in wines, and you will discover that behind the easily accessible floral aromas found in the bottles which are served along the coast, hides an aromatic potential, that with ageing develops the complexity that makes the comparison with Chablis Premier Cru valid.The wines in the amphora bottles are from the DOC Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi but for this DOC you can also find more ‘serious’ wines which are usually bottled in traditional Burgundy bottles. Here you can find excellent wines that after 5-8 years of aging in bottle starts to resemble one of the greatest white wines in Europe, namely the French Chablis from the best Premier Cru vineyards. Verdicchio is also found in another DOC, Verdicchio di Matelica, where quality might be even better, but the production is quite limited. However, it’s not the white Verdicchio that is most produced in the Marche. The percentage of (the) red wine production is slightly higher, and the grape varieties used in the vast majority of those wines are Montepulciano and Sangiovese, usually in varying blends. The best recognition achieved was the DOCG status for Conero in 2004. Along with the smoother DOC, Rosso Conero, the wine is mainly Montepulciano, which has permission to incorporate a small part (max 15%), of Sangiovese. In the third major DOC, Rosso Piceno, there is a greater freedom of choice for producers to blend their wines as they wish, as long as Montepulciano and Sangiovese are the main part of the blend. |
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