Le Marche Wine Tour - Sublime Spumante Off the Beaten Path

"Good wine is a necessity of life for me."  Thomas Jefferson

I live in Le Marche, Italy, a lesser known region situated along the Adriatic coast east of Tuscany and Umbria.  Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, said in a recent book that if she was buying a home in Italy today, she would buy in Le Marche.  For me, it is one of Italy's most beautiful regions framed by enchanting coastal towns and blue ribbon beaches on the eastern border and the Apennine mountains to the west.   Called Italy in one region, Le Marche is replete with medieval hill towns, olive groves, vineyards, fields of sunflowers and poppies.  It also boasts the world's second most visited pilgrimage site (the home of the Virgin Mary in Loreto), the Frassassi Caves (the largest cave system in Europe), and perhaps the largest crop of truffles in Italy.  (Acqualagna in Le Marche is responsible for about 2/3 of Italy's annual truffle production.)  

The beautiful Marche, from my front yard

However, no discussion about the merits of Le Marche would be complete without talking about the exceptional wines.  It was the wine that first brought me to Le Marche nearly 15 years ago.  After I tasted my first Verdicchio at a Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, my husband, Jim, and I made a trip to the region, subsequently imported Le Marche wines to California, and eventually, bought and restored an old stone farmhouse amid the colline (little hills) in the heart of the Verdicchio del Castelli di Jesi DOC.  Verdicchio, touted as one of the finest white wines of Italy, is said to date back to Roman times and has been grown in Le Marche since the 14th century.   While still relatively unknown in America, Verdicchio is recognized by wine critics as one of the best white wine varieties in Italy. Verdicchio wines are characterized by a balanced acidity with flavors of lemon and grapefruit and maybe even bitter almonds.  But aging of the sparkling Verdicchio by the classic champagne method creates a more mellow pallet, and the wines  generally exhibit flavors of honey and almonds and bread crust.  Verdicchio is a versatile grape whose rich acidity makes it particularly good for sparkling wine production.  

The Verdicchio grape

When we first encountered Verdicchio, there were few wineries making sparkling wines.  But today, the making of sparkling Verdicchio is a growing phenomenon, and producers are expanding from making spumante by the charmat method to making the wines in the classic champagne method with a second fermentation in the bottle.  And the results, are awesome.  The third best sparkling wine made in Italy is a sparkling Verdicchio made by the Colonnara winery in Cupramontana.  Their Ubaldo Rosi is a methodo classico wine aged in the bottle for five years. 

A vertical tasting of Ubaldo Rosi and a 1993 Luigi Ghislieri

If you are a wine enthusiast, and particularly a sparkling wine enthusiast, a trip to Le Marche is a must.  Here, unlike in the better known Italian wine regions, wine tasting is not a big business.  This means there are not tour buses lining the parking lot, huge crowds, and high prices for tastings and tours.  And no one is in a hurry to speed you through nor are they pushing a wine club.    The wine tasting is just a relaxed experience, often conducted by the winery owner or a family member. 

So, my advice for wine enthusiasts:  Pack your bags, board the plane, and come to Le Marche where you can still experience the real Italy and many wonderful wines.  Below are some of the principal wineries producing sparkling Verdicchio.  Make sure they are on your itinerary.  

1.  Colonnara
The Colonnara winery started as a cooperative of 19 growers in the small hill town of Cupramontana in 1959.  During its 50 plus years of wine making history,  Colonnara has grown to include nearly 200 producers spanning the length of the Marche region from the province of Pesaro/Urbino in the north to the southern province of Ascoli Piceno.  Today, Colonnara, one of the region's largest and most respected wineries, makes well over 1 million bottles of wine per year and 25% of their production is sparkling wines. Colonnara, one of the pioneers of sparkling wine making in the region, today makes spumante by the charmat method both Brut and Cuvee, a longer aged charmat; and two very special methodo classico wines:  Luigi Ghislieri aged  in the bottle for 24 to 30 months and Ubaldo Rosi, aged for 60 months. 
Visit the Colonnara winery at http://www.colonnara.it.  Contact by email:  info@colonnara.it

The Colonnara wine cellar - lots of spumante resting on the racks

2.  Garofoli
Garofoli is a five generation family owned and operated winery whose origins date back to 1901.  Located in Loreto, Italy, the winery produces approximately 2 million bottles of wine per year, about 90,000 bottles of which are sparkling wines made in both the charmat and classic Champagne methods. Today, Garofoli offers 5 types of sparkling wine - one made by the charmat method and the other four made by the classic Champagne method.  Among their sparkling wine selections is a Grand Reserva bottle aged for 10 to 20 years and a brut rose made from the Montepulciano grape and bottle aged for at least 24 months.
Visit Garofoli at http://www.garofolivini.it/.  Contact them by email: mail@garofolivini.it

The Garofoli winery in Loreto, Italy

3.  Vallerosa Bonci
For four generations, the Bonci family has been making wine in Cupramontana.  Today they make approximately 250,000 bottles of wine per year including a number of sparkling wines made in both the charmat and classic champagne methods.  If you stop by the cantina for a taste, you may be greeted by winery owner, Giuseppe Bonci,  as we were on a visit a little while back. 
Visit the Vallerosa Bonci website at: http://www.vallerosa-bonci.com/.  Contact them by email: info@vallerosa-bonci.com

In the Bonci tasting room with Giuseppe Bonci

4.  Umani Ronchi
Umani Ronchi is a family run winery dating back to 1959.  Today the Bernetti family produces 20 varieties of wine with a total production of approximately 3 million bottles per year.  All of their vineyards are organically farmed.  They have only one sparkling wine in their portfolio, Umani Ronchi Extra Brut.  This wine entered the market in 2011.  It is a methodo classico wine bottle aged for 30 months.
Visit the Umani Ronchi website at: http://www.umanironchi.com/en.  Contact them by email: wine@umanironchi.it

The Umani Ronchi winery, Osimo, Italy

5.  Moncaro
The Moncaro winery in Montecarotto was founded by a group of growers in 1964.  Today, the winery produces a broad assortment of wines, both white and red, including a charmat method sparkling wine made from 100% verdicchio grapes and a methodo classico made from Verdicchio and Montepulciano. 
Visit the Moncaro winery on line at http://www.moncaro.com/en/.  

The Moncaro tasting room in Montecarotto, Italy

If you are visiting Le Marche,  you might be interested in these services
Le Marche wine tours (available in English):  http://www.marcosway.it/
A beautiful country house and restaurant set in the heart of Verdicchio country:   http://www.vittoria-ilgraditempo.it/