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Sartarelli is a third-generation Verdicchio specialist in Poggio San Marcello, in the Castelli di Jesi hills of the Marche. Ferruccio Sartarelli, a baker turned winemaker, founded it in 1972 to lift Verdicchio above its old table-wine reputation. The estate works 136 acres of vineyard at around 350 metres above sea level, on the left bank of the Esino river. It bottles one grape and one grape only: Verdicchio. The 1997 Balciana, its single-vineyard Riserva, was named best white wine in the world at the 1999 International Wine Challenge.
Marche
Sartarelli sits at 350 metres above sea level in Poggio San Marcello, a village in the Province of Ancona on the left bank of the Esino river. The estate spans 55 hectares of vineyard and six of olive groves. Its winery and offices are built around a country house dated 1882, which anchors the property. The vineyards lie inside the historic Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico zone, on gentle hill slopes. Those slopes take in the cru-named districts of Coste del Molino, Tralivio and Balciana.
Ferruccio Sartarelli founded the estate in 1972. He was a baker turned wine producer, and he set out to lift Verdicchio out of its post-war reputation as a mass-market table wine. His daughter Donatella Sartarelli and her husband Patrizio Chiacchiarini took over the company. Today their children Caterina and Tommaso run export markets and the cellar. Decision making stays inside the family.
Sartarelli is one of the very few Italian wineries that bottles a single grape variety and only that variety. Every wine in the range is 100% Verdicchio. The list opens with Sartarelli Brut, a sparkling Verdicchio, and the entry Sartarelli Classico. Then come the old-vine Tralivio, a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC Classico Superiore, and the two Riserva DOCG bottlings, Milletta and Balciana. A late-harvest Sartarelli Passito closes the range.
The reference wine is Balciana, a Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Riserva DOCG Classico from a single vineyard. Roughly 15,000 bottles are made each year. In unfavourable vintages it is not produced at all, as in 1996, 2002 and 2005. The 1997 Balciana was named Best Italian White and Best White Wine in the World at the 1999 International Wine Challenge in London. That result remains the public marker of what the estate set out to do.
Alongside the cellar Sartarelli built the In Verdicchio Veritas Museum. It is a modern cube of wood, stone, steel and cork, set next to the 1882 country house. Inside are documents, images and tasting rooms devoted to the history of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. The museum underlines the single-grape focus of a family that treats this variety as its only subject.
Plate I · MARCHE
Wine area
The historic heart of Verdicchio, where clay-limestone hills west of Ancona produce Italy's most distinctive native white wine.
Winery
Poggio San Marcello, Ancona · Castelli di Jesi
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Sartarelli's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Verdicchio.
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Est. 1972 
1 wine 
Walk-ins welcome 
