Le Marche, rumbles from the future
The Marche region in Italy’s northeast has every reason to take the long view. It has been known for centuries for its port city, Ancona, a name given by Greek settlers from Syracuse that referred to its elbow-shaped docking area. Some say Romans may have given it its name from the word marca for a border region, on the edges of the Holy Roman Empire. History added a quirky touch: The pope’s unpopular tax collectors were often famously from here (a saying elsewhere in Italy is that it’s better to have a dead body in the house than someone from Le Marche at the door, meglio un morto in casa che un marchigiano dietro la porta).
Today it’s a tourist’s delight, home to beaches, mountains, what is arguably the country’s finest pasta-maker and one of Europe’s most astonishingly beautiful cave systems—it’s also an area steadily experimenting with wines of the future. They are fun, often good, occasionally excellent and a sign that here is a forward-thinking group of wine producers who are forging ahead and bravely experimenting. This is something to treasure in these times of climate change.
Bonus: while sipping, sipping, sipping you can explore a scientifically designed centuries old church, kiss to the soft beat of a gentle landscape and fantasize in red velvet opera chairs. You can hike endlessly through villages and national parks, with the Mount Conero park throwing in white sand beaches. Your heart will soar. You’ll want a car to get around the rest of the time.
The basics
Everyone has heard of Tuscany and for all that most of us love the bright colours and excesses and indulgent pride, the good food and art and scenery and — we all know where it is and how to get there, which means there are usually visitors galore.
Le Marche? Climb over the hills east of Florence, head straight over the wild Apennines, which reach more than 2400 metres above sea level, and you’ll land among the softer Marche (pronounced Mar-kay) hills. In front of you is the blueness of the Adriatic Sea, speckled with fishing boats and small cruise ships making the crossing between Split in Croatia and Ancona. Umbria is wedged between the lower parts of Tuscany and Le Marche.
It is also called Le Marche and sometimes The Marches in English.
Geographically, this is mountainous country with flat stretches bordering rivers (Metauro, Potenza, Tronto, and Nera) and the Adriatic shore. It was long poor compared to Tuscany, for example, which had a luxurious world of nobility and direct lines to Rome. Food and wine historically were more basic in the Marche. “Marche was a church region, so the emphasis was always on working hard and leading a good life — there was less self-promoting than among the nobility in Tuscany, and our region was more closed,” a winemaker told me during some time I spent in the area in October.
The downside of its geography has been isolation; the upside is that the area is not overrun by bucket-list tourists. And the many microclimates are perfect for a good mix of wines, necessary when the climate hands out too many surprises — there is the mixed geography, with limestone soils around Ascona and clay to the south, the influence of a major body of water and the alluvial influence of rivers, as well as the change in altitude from shoreline to peak. Sixty-nine percent of the land is hills, 31% mountains. Wine-lovers from Switzerland, who recognize such features, are right at home here. Flying into Ancona’s little airport means flying over the southern Alps and the lay of the land all starts to make sense.
The region was an ancient seabed so the main rock formations are sedimentary and limestone, creating Conero mountain and the Frasassi caves. In summer, temperatures reach 35C but winters are cold, often with snow. Winds from the east reach inland along the east to west rivers, helping to keep the grapes dry and disease-free.
Le Marche has five provinces, all of which make wine: north to south — Pesaro Urbino, Ancona, Fermo, Macerata, Ascoli Piceno. There are five DOCGs and 15 DOC (you’ll find a good primer on Italian wine labels and the classification system at Master Class). Behind this modern system lies centuries of winemaking, with archeological evidence that wine was made here long before the Romans arrived.
Three main types of wine have over time gained recognition and remain strong. The most famous might be Verdicchio whites from Castelli di Jesi, west of Ancona, including the riserva DOCG versions made from versatile and generous grapes that ripen as late as October. They lend themselves to well-structured wines with good acidity and body, with aromas of fennel, citrus and stone fruit. These are wines that can age well but which are also perfect with Adriatic shellfish and river fish when drunk young. Look to nearby Verdicchio di Matelica, with higher altitude vines, for full-bodied mineral wines. Verdicchio grapes cover 300 of the 900 hectares of vines in the region.
The Marche is the area furthest north that Montepulciano grows, with Rosso Conero DOC and the riserva DOCG versions made mainly around Ascona. While the riserva wines are matured in small casks before aging in bottle, the DOCs do not always use oak. These are bright and flavourful wines with good body, and the best of them have depth that makes them fine gastronomic wines. Up to 15% of a wine can be Sangiovese grapes although the riservas are made from grapes harvested later and are almost always made with 100% Montepulciano.
Other wines you’ll find in the region include Rosso Piceno, a red blend of Montepulciano and Sangiovese (great liberty for blending, so expect much variety), Bianchello del Metauro DOC, which are simple easy to drink whites that have been improved significantly by modern winemaking techniques. Offida is a DOC that allows for two white wines (Pecorino and Passerina grapes) and one red, mainly Montepulciano aged in wood, all from the southern Marche, where clay soil dominates and gives the wines characters unlike those from the north of the region.
The third type of wine, which is showing strong growth, is sparkling, mostly made using the Charmat method, sometimes called the tank method, which gives prosecco wines. The real star is the highly unusual Vernaccia di Serrapetrona DOCG, a bright red spumante wine with a very old history. It offers high acidity and notes of fresh red fruits, made from a partially dried grape that has the same DNA as Grenache. There is simply nothing to compare it to, and my own sense when tasting many of them was that I was indulging in an antique yet futuristic wine.
The wide range of sparkling wines in the Marche today is a testament to their willingness to experiment, with some very good results. Some 70% of Italian sparkling wine is exported, with production at just under one billion bottles in 2023, according to figures from the Italian wine observatory. Prosecco makes up about 70% of all sparkling wines.
The winemakers, the history
My visit to the area was part of a small group press trip organized with the Marche section of FIVI*, the Italian federation of independent wineries, which has 1,700 members. More than half are under organic or biodynamic management, but the 90 Marche wineries who are part of FIVI account for more than half of the overall federation vineyard hectares and two-thirds of them are certified organic or in reconversion — the three-year official process to become certified. Family businesses are investing strongly in organic and diversification here, leading the way and setting an example for other European countries.
This is a change: the region once was known for mass-produced grapes sold in bulk to very large wineries, to make (putting it kindly) mediocre wines. The family wineries are now driving a shift to quality and it is showing results — just in time, with the European market for cheap wines falling steadily.
Tasting dozens of wines from 35 Marche producers over a few days left me with some favourites, but mainly a sense that this is a place where we need to be as open to trying new wines as the wineries are to creating them and to improving their classics through creative winemaking.
And while you’re in Marche, don’t miss —
The Abbey of Sant’Urbano in Apiro, a romanesque church with several extraordinary features and tales, starting with the scientifically planned beam of sunlight that shines onto a circle in the interior wall every May 25.
Mancini Pastificio Agricolo, a farm and small factory where you can take a tour of this marvel of pasta-making, whose excellent products are made using semolina from durum wheat grown only in its own fields. Bronze dies are used to create pasta that holds sauces better. The real secret lies in the long, slow, low temperature drying.
Grotte di Frasassi, breathtaking, huge, an underground cathedral built by nature — even if you think you don’t like visiting caves, this is exceptional and the guided tours (obligatory) are very well done.
Offida, a city of much charm: the old church (and if you have someone to kiss, this is the place to do it), the splendid little opera house on the central plaza, and bobbin lacemaking, a very old tradition that is alive and well.
*The Independent Winegrower cultivates his own vines, vinifies his own
grapes, bottles his own wine and personally sells it under his own responsibility, under his own name and label. He carries out his activity in the form of a single or associated farm and in the exercise of his work he operates in accordance with the Italian laws of the sector. An Independent Winegrower does not buy grapes and/or wine for commercial purposes.
