Good Things From Italy - Le Cose Buone d'Italia

Verdicchio is a very tipical wine in Le Marche region. A tour in its land is a mix of food, relaxing landscapes, historical cities and, of course,very good wine.

There are two kinds of Verdicchio: the Verdicchio of Matelica, made in the Macerata’s province around the Matelica city, and the most famous Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, made further north in the province of Ancona. [...]

January always means starting fresh as well as remembering what came before. So it’s time for my annual look at the best Italian wines of 2013, but instead of offering a complete list (that will be printed in the Spring issue of my Guide to Italian Wines, available to paid subscribers), I’m going to take a different approach and focus on just a few wine zones that were home to some pretty special wines, offerings that don’t get a lot of attention.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi - Speaking of grapes that are largely ignored, Verdicchio is at or near the top of this list. Here is a grape grown in Marche that has uncommon complexity and can age –  given the proper care at any particular cellar in the best vintages – for 7-10 years and even longer in some cases (I tried a 1991 Verdicchio from the excellent cooperative producer Colonnara a few months ago that was superb and still quite fresh). So why don’t you hear about this wine more often? Simply put, the major wine publications focus on red wines, especially in Italy, so Verdicchio is priority number 35 (or is it  number 36?) for their editors.

The best new releases of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi I tasted were the 

2012 Umani-Ronchi “Casal di Serra”, the 2010 “Vecchie Vigne”2009 Umani-Ronchi “Plenio”2009 Villa Bucci “Riserva”Santa Barbara, the 2011 Stefano Antonucci “Riserva”2009 Stefano Antonucci “Tardivo ma non Tardivo” 

Read more about tese wines, click on the photo

Villa Taurini Verdicchio, Matelica, Italy 2012 (£5.49, Tesco) Most of us will find ourselves caught amid the trolley-rage and Slade of the festive supermarket at some point in the next couple of days, stocking up on random condiments and party nibbles we've suddenly convinced ourselves are essential even though we've only come in for a packet of Paxo. Chances are we'll also be looking to grab some wine with the five spice duck balls and piccalilli, so this week I've come up with a handful of my favourite supermarket bottles. First up, a pair of budget standbys for filling the gaps between the big set-piece meals. Tesco's clean and snappy Villa Taruini Verdicchio has a lot more nutty and citrus character than you'd normally find in a white at this price, and is made for frutti di mare. Even better value can be found at Sainsbury's with the vibrantly juicy, deeply plummy and softly spicy red of Bodegas Juan Gil Pasico Old Vine Monastrell-Shiraz, Jumilla, Spain 2012 (£5.99).

Try to avoid the really acidic wines (unless you are serving something like fresh oysters), so whites such as France’s muscadet or Italy’s verdicchio should be left on the rack. Again, softness and roundness should be the key

Earlier this month, the Italian postal service issued a stamp commemorating the appellation Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Riserva DOCG (above). The stamp is one of fifteen to be issued in celebration of the more than 70 Italian DOCGs.

Enotria, the land of vines, was the ancient Greek name for Italy and a very appropriate one at that. Today much of Italian white wine is dominated by a handful of white wine varieties, yet it remains full of local, indigenous varieties that offer subtly different and unique expressions of a time and place.
With spring slowly arriving, and summer threatening, we all tend to slowly switch over to drinking more white wines. With so much variety, you can spend the entire spring and summer exploring these wines

2011 Capestrano Verdicchio di Matelica 
In the Verdicchio di Matelica region, the wines produced in the local mineral rich hillside vineyards tend to be rather focused and crisp, with prominent flavors of peaches and an assertive, almost salty minerality.
This smells of big ripe peach and stinky volcanic soil all covered in a bit of cheese ring. A bit tense and firm in the mouth, this opens with assertive earthy, mineral notes followed by gentle white fruits suspended on a rather angular frame. There's plenty of cut on the palate, with a hint of tannin that drives the medium length, dusty dry and refreshing finish. Not a fruity wine, this is a bit simple and subtle but beautifully built. A really fine food wine.

87 points 13% $11

[...]

With the first stirrings of summer heat, the crisp, citrusy allure of white wine beckons. Italian whites differ from California whites in that they are often a blend of citrus, almond, herbal, and mineral, less big fruit than a bewitching melange, mostly fermented in stainless steel instead of a toasted oak barrel, an interesting yet easy-drinking wine to ponder the questions of the ages.
Verdicchio is a characterful white wine that comes from the Le Marche region of Central Italy, just east of Tuscany on the coast. It’s a rugged region, sparsely populated, with a history of two wine grape varietals, Verdicchio for white and Montepulciano for red. Verdicchio comes in two distinct incarnations, the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi (the biggest production, softer, rounder, and most easily found in this country) and the Verdicchio di Matelica (which is a sharper, more floral version). The Verdicchio del Castelli di Jesi springs from limestone soils, channeling its minerality into the body of the wine. Verdicchio means “little green one” in Italian, and its straw color with green tinges reflect that. A flavor profile of fresh apples, lemon (fruit, peel, and flowers), herbaceous notes, wet stone, and a slightly bitter toasted almond finish form the base for the wine. Crisp acidity, with medium alcohol, it is food-friendly (especially to fish) and an excellent aperitif. Once disparaged as a simple quaffing wine, Verdicchio’s quality has been improved in recent years by local producers, especially Garofali, who has mastered the incarnation of this grape.
At a recent Le Marche educational dinner seminar, conducted by the North American Sommelier Association, four Verdicchios were explored. The 2010 Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico was a pleasant aperitif, more golden delicious apple and almonds, with the vanilla touch of a brief time aged in oak. The 2011 Garofoli “Macrina” Verdicchio Classico Superiore was aromatic, elegant, yet crisp in its expression. Grapefruit, lemon, and lime notes frame the yellow plum, ripe apples, peaches, and mango flavors, with a long finish of slightly bitter hazelnut skin. The 2007 Villa Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva was rounder, more elegant, full bodied and well balanced, with aromas and flavors of apricot compote, spice, hazelnut, honey, and flint. The oak and bottle aging contributed to the more savory character of the wine, with more spice, nuts, herbs, and mineral notes present over the fruit and floral of a younger wine. Finally, the 2010 Garofali Podium Verdicchio Classico Superiore offered up intense ripe apricot fruit, citrus, almond, a touch of honey, mineral notes, a hint of green hazelnut, no oak, and an intriguing salinity. This is not a simple wine, dry and crisp when young, but worthy of aging (it develops a deep golden hue and a ripe apricot flavor tinged with a burnt sugar note reminiscent of creme brulée), it has earned lots of notice from wine critics. and the influential Italian wine guide Gambero Rosso has bestowed the Tres Bicchieri (three glass) award to this wine.
Try Verdicchio for a change of pace, a savory, crisp white wine that complements seafood and fish, but stands on its own as a zesty, citrusy, almond-tinged aperitif, constantly refreshing the palate, and begging you to empty the glass.

The  Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore wine by Casalfarneto comes from Le Marche Region of Italy. Legend has it that when the Visigoths marched on Rome, they were provided with barrels of Verdicchio to maintain their strength.
Verdicchio means “little green one” and the grapes are straw colored with green tinges. The grapes for the Superiore wines come from the oldest winegrowing areas, in this case the Fontevecchia Vineyard.
This wine is crisp and tinged with minerality. It is fermented in stainless steel and aged for nine months before bottling. It has a rich texture with tropical fruit notes. It has more gusto than most Italian whites.
The Verdicchio pairs well with fish, shrimp and real Italian dishes. This wine got a hearty thumbs up, especially when you want a switch from Chardonnay.

Sette vini marchigiani nella classifica dei 50 Top Vini Bianchi d’Italia. Come da tradizione la guida di Class ha stilato la propria classifica incrociando le guide di Gamberorosso, Espresso,Veronelli, Bibenda e Maroni, in base alla somma dei punti ottenuti compelssivamente. Tra questi ben sette vini sono rappresentati dal Verdicchio di Jesi. Secondo posto per il vino riserva prodotto dall’azienda agricola dei Fratelli Bucci di Ostra Vetere, in provincia di Ancona. [...]

Umani Ronchi’s “Plenio” is one of two “flagship” Verdicchio produced at this impressive Marche-based winery. Produced from some of the best Verdicchio grapes harvested from Umani Ronchi’s “Torre” vineyard, this 1999 “Plenio” Verdicchio was fermented in a mix of stainless steel and oak vessels, before a further 12 months of maturation on the lees of that fermentation.
Few people outside of Italy are aware that Verdicchio is a grape variety that can produce wines of extraordinary longevity, yet this 1999 “Plenio” Verdicchio dei Castelli dei Jesi Riserva is a case in point. Now a gold colour of moderate intensity in the glass, this rare and unusual wine combines the charms of greengages, golden raspberries and waxed lemons with hints of petrol and green apple skins that are reminiscent of a mature Riesling. Quite rich and full, the acidity that underpins this wine has been maintained remarkably well and whilst bottle variation will likely become an issue, some bottles of this 1999 “Plenio” could well endure another five to ten years in cellar yet. A finish of impeccable length lingers as this remarkable wine slowly fades.
SCORE: 91 points

Villa Bucci has become for many, the most famous producer of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, a Verdicchio from a beautiful, gently hilly area in northern Marche (there is another Verdicchio DOC – Verdicchio di Matelica – that is also quite expressive). The classic 2012 version (2012, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, is an excellent vintage for white wines throughout Italy), is a beauty, with aromas of acacia flowers, Bosc pear, jasmine and spearmint (the perfumes of a young, unoaked Verdicchio are irresistible) backed by very good depth of fruit, good persistence and very good acidity. Enjoy this over the next 3-5 years.

The Riserva Villa Bucci 2009 is outstanding; matured for two years in older barrels, there is a light creaminess in the aromas that accompany notes of hyacinth and orange blossom – just lovely! Medium-full with excellent concentration, this has outstanding persistence, a long, long finish and lovely finesse. What an outstanding wine! I also tasted three older vintages of this wine: the 2008, 2007 and 2004, each of which was excellent ,with the 2004 offering the greatest complexity, but the 2009 was in my judgment, the finest of all these wines. Look for this wine in a few months, as this continues the ultra impressive track record of this producer with this beautiful wine. [...]

Yesterday I joined a walk in the vineyards in Cerreto D’esi, and area closer to my home town. Now in Italy it’s the time for the grapes harvest…many villages organize festivals for this harvest and for me this year I  decided to go more deeper about the knowledge of the wine in my region.

The walk has very interesting and I always dreamt to walk in the vineyard valleys.
The valley I have been yesterday is Cerreto d’ Esi is famous for a white wine called  Verdicchio.
In my region there  are two types of wine called Verdicchio: one of Jesi and another of Matelica (that’s closer to Cerreto). The type of grapes is the same and it is called Verdicchio. So which is the difference between the wine of this two areas?
Jesi is sited closer to the sea, instead Cerreto is covered from edges of mountains giving a particular clime, summers very hot and winters very cold. So the grapes in spring is still cold and  for this reason no many new grapes can grow , thats why the bottles production are less than Jesi’s Verdicchio anyway during the summer the only few grapes grow up, since it is so hot, will have a  big concentration of sugar giving more high level of alcohol…

Vermentino and Verdicchio are the grape varieties adding character to formerly austere Italian white wines.

Verdicchio will be familiar to those of a certain generation who drank it from a fish-shaped bottle during the 1970s and 1980s.

At that time, a firm called Fazi-Battaglia produced large quantities of Verdcchio dei Castelli di Jesi, a very light almost anonymous dry white wine. Verdicchio has been grown for centuries in the Marches, a region that runs along the central eastern coast of Italy.

Experts argue as to whether it is the same grape as Trebbiano di Soave and Trebbiano di Lugana. It certainly appears to share the same parentage, but is now established as a variety in its own right, and currently enjoying a new-found status.

In the Marches, Castelli di Jesi has always been the best-known name, but in recent years some of the more interesting wines seem to be coming from Matelica, a smaller region high in the hills. But both have seen a big revival in interest over the last decade or so, and now produce some very interesting wines.

In Italy Verdicchio has a reputation for ageing, largely because of its high acidity. However, just because it lasts doesn’t mean it improves. Although I have tasted a few older wines, I would generally prefer the younger versions.

The vast majority of producers aim to keep the acidity in check and develop the fruit flavours, making for very good wines that can still provide excellent drinking with fish and shellfish.