Wine Tastings, Winery Visits and Wine Tours in The Marches

Wine tasting in Le Marche: which areas and wineries to visit

Le Marche's wineries sit on the hills between the Apennines and the Adriatic, from Pesaro and Urbino in the north to the Piceno in the south. From Ancona, Jesi is half an hour's drive away, Urbino and Ascoli Piceno about an hour and twenty minutes. There are about 60 wine tastings and winery visits here, at more than 35 wineries. About four in five last one to two hours, usually with 3 or 4 wines and often with local cured meats, cheese and olive oil, and guests have left more than 100 reviews on Winedering.

Which wineries are worth visiting in Le Marche?

Among the most booked on Winedering, one in each area:

• Tenuta Mattei, in Corinaldo, in the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi area: the cellar, then 5 wines, including its Antrum traditional method sparkling wine, with cheese and cured meats.
• Fattoria Lucesole, in Ancona, inside the Conero park: a walk through vines and olive trees, with Monte Conero dropping into the sea, then a tasting of this organic farm's wines.
• Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo, about ten kilometres from Urbino: the vineyard and cellar of an organic estate, then 5 wines with bread and olive oil.
• Tenute Muròla, in Urbisaglia, in the hills of the province of Macerata: a tour of the historic cellar, then 3 wines, a white and two reds, with cheese and cured meats.

What wines is Le Marche known for, and where can you taste them?

Le Marche is best known for Verdicchio, a white wine. Its five DOCGs are Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Riserva, Verdicchio di Matelica Riserva, Conero, Offida and Vernaccia di Serrapetrona. Each area has its own wines:

• Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi: in the Esino valley and the hills around it, with about 20 experiences.
• Verdicchio di Matelica: further inland, in the province of Macerata, a valley enclosed by mountains gives a more mineral Verdicchio. In Matelica, Gagliardi pours 6 wines, including two vintages of its Maccagnano Riserva, and shows you its stone underground cellar, with the concrete vats its founder bought in the 1950s and 1960s. The same province is home to Vernaccia di Serrapetrona, a sparkling red DOCG.
• Conero: on the headland south of Ancona and the hills behind it, the Montepulciano grape becomes Rosso Conero and, as a Riserva, Conero DOCG. In Castelfidardo, Garofoli shows you its barrel cellar and the riddling racks of its sparkling wines, then pours 4 of its icon wines, from Podium Verdicchio to Grosso Agontano Conero Riserva, with olive oil and local cured meats.
• Morro d'Alba: Lacrima di Morro d'Alba, a red that smells of roses and violets, is made in six municipalities between Morro d'Alba and Senigallia. In Ostra, Conti di Buscareto pours a Verdicchio, a Lacrima and a Rosso Piceno, with local cured meats.
• Piceno: the area around Ascoli Piceno, in the south, is home to Rosso Piceno Superiore, from Montepulciano and Sangiovese, and to the whites Pecorino and Passerina, two of the three types of Offida DOCG. It has about 20 experiences.
• Pesaro and Urbino: in the north the white is Bianchello del Metauro, from the Biancame grape. In Fratte Rosa, Terracruda pours 9 wines, including its Campodarchi Bianchello and a Pergola rosé made from Aleatico.

When is the best time for wine tasting in Le Marche?

Summer is the busiest season: on Winedering, August is the most popular month, and June to September accounts for more than half of the year's bookings. On Saturdays from June to August, Terre di San Ginesio, the most booked winery on this page, holds an apericena, a buffet aperitivo that stands in for dinner, in its Le Moline vineyard in the hills of San Ginesio: 7 wines with local specialities such as bruschetta and ciauscolo, a soft salami. In Ancona, Moroder follows a short cellar visit with a 5-course menu and 5 wines, in summer on a terrace overlooking the Conero; three courses use black Conero truffle. In San Marcello, Tenuta San Marcello pairs 3 of its wines with a 4-course lunch or dinner at its Osteria del Vignaiolo. All year round, Tenuta Cocci Grifoni, in San Savino di Ripatransone, the estate that brought the Pecorino grape back in the 1980s, pours 2 wines with a seasonal dish on a covered terrace above the clay badlands.

In late May, Italy's wine tourism association, the Movimento Turismo del Vino, holds Cantine Aperte (open cellars): about 80 member wineries in Le Marche welcome anyone who buys a glass at the first winery they visit, with a few free tastings at each. The experiences on this page run on their own dates, and many can be given as a gift: whoever receives the voucher picks the date.