Sartarelli Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore Balciana 2007-2015
BY IAN D’AGATA |
The world’s greatest wines transcend the
grape variety they are made from or even the place they are made. They offer
the best possible expression that can derive from the combination of magical
site, variety and human talent. For example, there are many Montrachets, but
Leflaive and DRC versions are a step above anything else produced from those
hallowed vines; there are many Pomerol or Merlot wines made all over the world,
but what Pétrus achieves is quite unlike anything else anywhere. I do not think
I’ll offend anyone by saying that the most memorable wines that Bruno Giacosa
was able to make from the Santo Stefano cru were quite unlike any made by
anyone else from that vineyard. And though less famous and less well-known to
the general public than some of the aforementioned great wine names, the same
holds true of the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore Balciana
made by the Sartarelli family in the Marche. Simply put, though there are some
truly great Verdicchio wines (Villa Bucci’s Riserva springs to mind), no other
Verdicchio is anything like Balciana.
The Balciana amphitheater
