A Wealth Of Wines In Le Marche On The Italian Adriatic Coast

Hunting is a popular “sport” in Italy. A less lethal sport is hunting for unusual wines, and, for that, Italy is an excellent hunting ground. Wherever you go in Italy, you will find delicious local wines made from grape varieties you have probably never heard of. Le Marche is a good example, with plenty of delicious and off-the-beaten-track wines. Here, you can find any type of wine imaginable, made chiefly from local traditional grape varieties, verdicchio, pecorino (no, not the cheese), montepulciano, passerina, lacrima, ciliegiolo and many more. Join me on a tour of Le Marche wines and grape varieties.

Italy’s Adriatic Coast will probably make you think of the blue sea, bright skies, small ancient villages and winding roads. But it is also a region that produces some excellent wines. Perhaps not as famous as the landscapes and its history, but that is probably because all the wine regions are pretty small. Rosso conero, rosso piceno, verdicchio dei castelli di jesi and also di matelica, offida, colli maceratesi… How many of those have you heard of? One, or perhaps two. If you get the chance, they are all worth exploring. Just as it is worth visiting and exploring the region, so let’s make a vinous trip to Le Marche, one of the most famous regions along the Italian Adriatic coast.

Le Marche is sometimes referred to in English as The Marches, but I’ll stick to the Italian version. It is one of the central regions of Italy, on the Adriatic Coast, facing Croatia. It lies south of Emilia-Romagna, east of Tuscany and Umbria, and north of Abruzzo. The biggest city and capital is Ancona, a seaport with around 100,000 inhabitants.

The region has a wealth of wines with a variety of styles, sometimes a bit confusing, but that also makes it an exciting region to explore for the wine lover. Let’s approach it by looking at some of the main wine appellations.

DOCs and DOCGs

The main wine regions in Le Marche offers a very wide variety in styles and wines, everything you can wish for.

This is not a complete list of all the DOCs and DOCGs. There are about 20 of them in total.

Bianchello del Metauro DOC

Metauro is a river valley stretching northeast from the Apennines into the Adriatic Sea. Bianchello is a white grape, usually called biancame. It is almost exclusively grown in Le Marche, and most of it is in this valley. The appellation has 244 hectares, so you will be lucky to find one of the wines. It is a close cousin to Colli Macerati.

Colli Maceratesi DOC

The Colli Maceratesi – “the hills around the town of Macerata” – stretches far beyond the neighbourhood of the town. No single wine style dominates; the wines can be red, white, still, sparkling, dry or sweet. Most of the wines here are white, usually made predominantly from another rare local grape variety, the maceratino. This is sometimes specified as Colli Maceratino Ribona. It can be blended with trebbiano toscano, verdicchio, malvasia toscana and/or chardonnay. The reds must be made from a majority of sangiovese, also possibly blended with several other grapes: cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, ciliegiolo, lacrima, merlot and/or montepulciano. Although the denomination stretches over a vast area, less than 100 hectares of vines are planted.

Conero DOC

Conero, sometimes called Rosso Conero, is one of the more famous appellations in Le Marche. It is named after Monte Conero, which is rather unimpressive as a mountain, 567 metres high, but it is still an impressive feature of the landscape since it is a cliff that drops directly into the sea. It is a beautiful coastal location that undoubtedly contributed to its fame. The quite full-bodied wine is made mainly from the montepulciano grape, not to be confused with the Tuscan town of the same name, possibly supplanted with a bit of sangiovese. There are 350 hectares. There’s a riserva version that is DOCG.

Falerio DOC

Falerio also goes under the name Falerio dei Colli Ascolani, indicating that it comes from the inland hills around Ascoli. It’s a fresh, dry white wine made from a blend of several grape varieties: trebbiano toscano is usually the majority, with the addition of passerine, pecorino (not to be confused with the cheese) and several other varieties.

A special version of it is made exclusively from pecorino (or at least 85%), the Falerio Pecorino.

Lacrima di Morro d’Alba DOC

Morro d’Alba is a hilltop fortress town with 1821 inhabitants. The wine appellation around it is also small, no more than 258 hectares. The tears (it. lacrima) they manage to squeeze out of the grapes in this hilly area come from a grape variety that almost only exists here in Le Marche, the lacrima. They also make a sweet version from dried grapes.

Offida DOCG

Offida is perhaps the best-known of the local appellations. The town it takes its name from has several exciting and touristic features. It is one of the bigger hillside towns with almost 5000 inhabitants. It has a curious church, Santa Maria della Rocca, built on two levels: an upper church and a lower church. On the triangular town square, there’s a beautiful old theatre. But perhaps its biggest claim to fame (apart from the wine) is that it is the capital of bobbin lace making (or pillow lace), a fantastic craft that you can still see in the streets. There’s even a bobbin lace-making statue.

The wine comes in both white and red versions. The whites are made from either the passerina grape or pecorino and are usually labelled Offida Passerina or Offida Pecorino. The red is made mainly from Montepulciano. It must be aged in barrel (not necessarily new, of course) and can’t be released until two years after the harvest. They also make some sparkling and sweet wines.

Pergola DOC

I’ve mentioned several things that “should not be confused with,” and here’s one more. Pergola DOC is a small wine region in Le Marche, not to be confused with the pergola vine training system. It is an aromatic red wine made from the aleatico grape, which is believed to be related to muscat blanc à petits grains.

Piceno DOC

Piceno, or Rosso Piceno (since it is always red), is the biggest of the DOCs in Le Marche. It stretches over a large geographic area along the coast, north and south of Ancona, and up into the Apennine Mountains. Most vineyards are on mountain slopes, sometimes going high up, reaching more than 700 m altitude. There are several different styles, but they are all made from a majority of Montepulciano, blended with sangiovese and sometimes some other grapes. The area extends over some 4800 hectares.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC

Without a doubt, the most famous appellation in Le Marche is Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, perhaps not surprising with a reference to Jesus in the name, “the fortresses of Jesus”. However, the origin of the name is not what one usually thinks. It is instead believed to be a reference to a Greek king who founded the town of Jesi in the eighth century BC. His name was Esio.

But perhaps this appellation's fame is also due to its being one of the biggest denominations in Le Marche, if not the biggest. The 2762 hectares are planted almost exclusively with the verdicchio grape variety, a white grape giving elegant and refreshing whites with crisp acidity. There’s also a riserva version of it that has DOCG.

Verdicchio di Matelica DOC

Matelica is a small town with less than 10,000 inhabitants, surrounded by vineyards. The main wine made here is the Verdicchio di Matelica, a sister appellation to Verdicchio di Castelli di Jesi, but just a tenth of the size, less than 300 hectares. It is mainly still white but can also be sparkling and sweet (passito) and has a DOCG declination.

Vernaccia di Serrapetrona DOCG

Vernaccia di Serrapetrona is a curious oddity. It is perhaps the smallest appellation in Le Marche, with some 20 hectares. It is made from the vernaccia grape, but not the usual white version. Instead it is the red vernaccia nera that is used to make an aromatic red sparkling wine that can be either dry or sweet.

Riserva, classico, superiore…

Some of these DOCs and DOCGs sometimes add the words riserva, classico, or superiore to their names. This may—or may not—indicate that they are made in a more ambitious style.

IGT Marche

Arguably, equally important as the DOCs and DOCGs, you have the IGT Marche. The DOCs and DOCGs are sometimes said to be “the top of the quality pyramid”. In reality, those indications Denominazione di Origine Controllata and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita are more a label that shows that it is a wine district that has a specific tradition and history and that a producer follows the rules set up for each denomination/appellation, as well as being limited to a restrictive geographical area. That does not always translate to quality, which more comes from the dedication and talent of the winemaker.

IGT Marche (indication geografica tipica) is a category with looser rules, giving the winemaker more say in what grape varieties to use, what style to choose for the wine, etc. It is also an appellation that covers a much larger geographic region, essentially the whole of Le Marche.

This means that there is a bigger variation of style within “IGT Marche” compared to the DOCs and DOCGs, but also that it is much easier to find on the market. Of course, it has the added benefit to the consumer of clearly showing that it is a wine from Le Marche, which is often not obvious with the other appellations.

Great variety of wine styles

Thus, Le Marche offers an almost infinite variety of wine styles, almost anything you can think of, red, white, rosé sparkling, but also more unusual versions like the sweet passito wines, ice wine, and what is called “cotto”, a sweet “wine” obtained by concentrating the must (and thus the sugar contents) by heating it.

Wine producers in Le Marche

One additional good thing with Le Marche wines are that they are comparatively affordable. There is a wealth of wines to explore that range between 10 and 25 euro (11 to 27 USD) locally. There are few big producers so what you can find on your local market will depend a lot on what your local wine importer or wine merchant has found among the smaller ones. One good place to look for these smaller producers is the association of small family-owned wineries called Vignaioli Independenti (or FIVI with the Italian abbreviation).

Le Marche grape varieties

Le Marche is a rich hunting ground for those interested in discovering more unusual grape varieties.

The most planted grape is verdicchio, a white grape that gives light to medium-bodied wines with very fresh acidity, citrus notes and pleasant flowery aromatics. The acidity can be very refreshing.

There are two dominant red grape varieties, montepulciano and sangiovese. Montepulciano usually makes fairly deep-coloured wines with a fair amount of tannins. Sangiovese is often slightly lighter in colour and body with a refreshing cherry acidity. They are often used together in blends but sometimes also for single-variety wines.

But there is a wealth of other grape varieties in Le Marche that are fascinating to explore and can make excellent and more unusual wines. Gallioppo, ciliegiolo and lacrima are red varieties, as well as pinot nero. For whites there are malvasia, vernaccia, pecorino, passerina, trebbiano, pinot bianco, pinot grigio, albanella, bianchello, biancame, maceratino, and more.

But you will find much more if you go hunting for the unusual.

Perhaps the greatest challenge with Le Marche is its diversity and fragmentation. There are so many small wine districts and such a wide array of grape varieties and styles that it is sometimes difficult to remember what is what. But with a little bit of effort and a desire to discover, you will find many delicious wines from Le Marche. This “challenge” is also one of the great attractions of this beautiful Italian region.

—Per Karlsson