Verdicchio di Matelica

The Verdicchio di Matelica wine from The Marche region is a dry white wine with a light straw color with greenish reflections. The wine can be made from 100% Verdicchio grapes but it is also allowed to blend in up till 15% of Malvasia Toscana and/or Trebbiano Toscano grapes. Most producers create 100% Verdicchio (single variety) wines however.

The refined taste of Verdicchio di Matelica consists of fruit and minerals with pleasant acidity. Since this wine (unlike most whites) can age for quite some years there also is a difference in body and intensity between young and old wines. The older wines are fuller bodied and have softer acidity than the younger wines.

Verdicchio di Matelica is often compared to the better known and more widely available Verdicchio dei castelli di Jesi wine which is produced more towards the east in the Marche region near the Adriatic Sea. The biggest differences between these two wines are the size and location of the production area. The area around Matelica is much smaller and also is further from the sea. Jesi lies closely to the Adriatic Sea which creates a milder climate. These differences result in less bulk wine because of the smaller production area as well as well as more complexity because of the more difficult climate which makes the vines work harder to produce full ripe grapes.

Verdicchio di Matelica has the DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) classification, the second highest in Italy.