Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio: Learning to recognize the specific terroir of Italy’s most ageworthy white wine

WARNING: IN ORDER TO ATTEND THIS TASTING, BEFORE BOOKING / BUYING THE TICKET, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN ENTRY PASS FOR THE EXHIBITION VINITALY 2024 VALID FOR THE DAY IN WHICH THE TASTING TAKES PLACE.

Verdicchio is one of Italy’s best native grapes. Just like all the world’s most noble grape varieties like for example Riesling and Nebbiolo, Verdicchio’s wines are not just extremely age-worthy, but also able of expressing their different terroirs clearly. In fact, there is no such thing as just “one” Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi: rather, there are potentially many different ones that speak of the diversity of habitats characterizing the various communes of the denomination that the grapes are planted in.

For example, with a little tasting experience, it’s easy to distinguish between the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi from the commune di Cupramontana and one from Morro d’Alba. This discussion about the “terroirs of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi” is still only in its embryonic stages, but there is a small group of very talented and passionate producers that have started to analyze the matter in-depth. Furthermore, this diversity of terroirs becomes even more apparent when the wines are about ten years old, something that is easy to check with Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, as no other white wine denomination in Italy boasts so many wineries making wines that age as well and for as long.

In this masterclass created specifically for Vinitaly by Ian D’Agata, multi-awarded wine book author and recognized expert on Italian wines, we will analyze in detail for the first time the differences in terroir of the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi with the help of older wines (most wines in this tasting are seven to eight years old) together with the producers of the Bucci, La Staffa, Marotti Campi, Mirizzi di Montecappone, Pievalta, Sartarelli, Tenuta di Tavignano, Tenuta dell’Ugolino, Vallerosa Bonci and Vignamato wineries.