La Marca di San Michele 2016 Passolento
3/20/23 -
Though I would consider myself a relative novice of Italian white wines, I've heard that Verdicchio can produce some of the finest white wines of Italy, and can attest to trying some impressive examples over the years. Of the ones I've tried, the wines of La Marca di San Michele have always been standouts. A couple of years ago, we sent out an offer for the 'Capovolto,' their stainless steel fermented white, which sees 7-8 months lees aging in steel before being released. Thanks to a local customer who is a big fan of the wines of La Marca di San Michele and recently inquired about a wine called 'Passolento,' we discovered that the folks at Kermit Lynch Wines have a tiny amount left of this exceptional Verdicchio Riserva from the 2016 vintage. 'Passolento' is their top white, fermented and aged in large Slavonian botti, with a year on the lees in barrel and a year of bottle aging before release. It's tasting beatifully now, perhaps at a peak moment. When the winemakers were in the US recently, they actually asked if they could buy back the stock of the 2016 because of how good it was! Today we're offering everything we could get of the wine, and for those of you who don't have space to store a case or more, a special 10% discount off on 6 or more bottles through Tuesday. - Eben Lillie
A bit of info about the estate, from our own Jamie Wolff:
La Marca was started in 2007 by Daniela Quaresima, Beatrice Bonci, and her brother Alessandro. Artists and musicians with some winemaking experience, they thought that producing their own wine would provide a bridge between art and wine, but as Alessandro says, with a laugh, “we quickly found that we were stuck in the vines, that the wine demanded total dedication, and that there was always too much to do and very little time for anything else.”
Their town, Cupramontana, is at the heart of the best terroir for Verdicchio and has always been an important place for wine long before Verdicchio had commecial success, and it’s own DOC. Alessandro: “Our research in wine is aimed at finesse; we want to make an elegant wine. We don’t like heavy wines, difficult to drink, too alcoholic. Now it’s common to find Verdicchio over 14 degrees, and people become accustomed to Verdicchio being similar to a red wine; we’re alone in harvesting a bit early before the other producers to lower alcohol and achieve greater finesse.” La Marca has been farming organically since the beginning, integrating biodynamic practices as well. Winemaking is “classic vinification” – whole bunch, indigenous yeasts, overnight maceration on the skins, and aging on the fine lees. The result is a delicious and eminently versatile white wine.
