2014 Verdicchio di Matelica

The 2014 vintage was a difficult one and even Collestefano, in my view one of Italy’s best wine estates, had difficulty in turning out wines of their usual stellar quality level. Simply put, this estate's Verdicchio di Matelica is normally one of the country’s 25 best white wines. Owner Fabio Marchionni is an immensely talented individual who manages to raise a grape variety and wine to a level few others can; his Verdicchio di Matelica is not just mineral and steely (perhaps partly a result of Marchionni having studied and worked in Germany), but ages extremely well too (ten years plus). The estate now also produces a very fine sparkling wine and a lovely Rosato. Fabio’s arrival in 1998 (exactly twenty years after his family bought the estate) coincided with the upsurge in the quality of the estate’s wines, but it’s noteworthy that his parents Benedetto and Anna had started organic farming already in 1995, long before it became fashionable in Italy. Collestefano’s success is based on a recipe common to all the great wine estates of the world: a great cool-climate terroir (Collestefano is located at 1800 feet above sea level near Castelraimondo), a great grape variety (Verdicchio) and a talented, passionate family.