Colli Maceratesi Wine

Colli Maceratesi is a DOC of the Marches wine region in central Italy. The title covers a vast area relative to other central Italian DOCs, although its production volume falls far short of this grand scale. Red and white wines are made here in seven or eight key styles, including foaming spumante and bright, youthful-styled novello, as well as sweet passito wine made from dried grapes.

The whites are made from the local vine curiosity Maceratino, whose increasingly rare plantings are dwarfed by the acreage available to them in the Colli Maceratesi. There are two sub-varieties of Maceratino (Ribona and Montecchiese), both of which are sanctioned for use under the local DOC laws. Backing this up is a broad palette of white grapes, including French imports Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and Marche's top grape, Verdicchio.

The reds are based on Italy's most widely planted red grape, Sangiovese, which must constitute at least half of any Colli Maceratesi Rosso blend. The remaining half is taken up by a mixture of local and international varieties, including Ciliegliolo, Lacrima, Montepulciano, Merlot and Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon.

The Colli Maceratesi catchment area stretches from the Adriatic coast right up to the Apennine Mountains 50 miles (80km) to the west, broadly following the course of the Chienti river. The climate here is more continental than further south in the region, and is typically better suited to red wines – the Rosso Conero and Rosso Piceno DOCs lie adjacent to the Colli Maceratesi.