Italy | Marche

Le Marche (The Marches) is a wine region located on the Adriatic coast of central Italy. It is bordered by the Emilia-Romagna wine region to the north, Abruzzo to the south and is separated from Umbria to the west by the Apennines. Its capital and largest city is Ancona.

Marche offers many varied wine styles and viticultural traditions which can be attributed to the region's winemaking heritage that spans thousands of years and has been influenced, among others, by the Etruscans, Romans and Lombards. In addition to these cultural influences, the Marche has a number of differing terroirs each well suited to the cultivation of vines, particularly among the rolling coastal hills around Ancona. Due to the proximity of the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea, alongside the various rivers of the region, there are a number of climates that provide wine producers both warm and cool viticultural areas to work with.

In the wine world, Marche is best known for its white wines in particular those made from the Verdicchio grape; the finest expressions of which are to be found in the DOCGs of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi and Verdicchio di Matelica. It is also a source of some very good Montepulciano-based red wines like Rosso Cònero and Rosso Piceno.