Umani Ronchi

Umani Ronchi is based at Osimo, in the hills behind Ancona, and farms in two regions: the Marche, and Abruzzo further down the Adriatic coast. Gino Umani Ronchi started it in 1957 as a small farm at Cupramontana, in the heart of the Verdicchio Classico zone. It has not belonged to his family since 1968, when Roberto Bianchi, a building contractor from Ancona, and his son-in-law Massimo Bernetti bought the brand and the estate. Massimo began taking the wines abroad in 1973, and his son Michele Bernetti runs the business today. I mention all that because "family estate" gets used loosely in wine, and here the family is Bernetti rather than Umani Ronchi.

It has grown into a large operation by the standards of most independent producers: more than 200 hectares between the two regions, including 30 hectares of organic vineyard in Abruzzo bought in 2001. The estate says 210 hectares are now cultivated organically, and it holds the Equalitas certification, which audits the business as well as the farming. Scale usually costs you something in wine. It does not seem to here, and that consistency is what makes the name worth knowing.

Two grapes account for nearly everything. Verdicchio is the white of the Castelli di Jesi, the hills inland and west of Ancona, and Umani Ronchi have done as much as anyone to prove it is a serious ageing white rather than a cheap holiday one. Montepulciano is the red, and they grow it two ways: on the calcareous clay of the Conero promontory just south of Ancona, where it becomes Rosso Conero and Conero Riserva, and on the warmer plains of Chieti and Teramo in Abruzzo, where it becomes Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Those are two different appellations with two different sets of rules, and they are not interchangeable. The estate worked with the late Giacomo Tachis, the oenologist behind Sassicaia and Tignanello, and its Pelago won the International Wine Challenge in London in 1994. Gambero Rosso named them Winery of the Year 2024, and Italy's Ministry of Enterprises listed them as a Historic Brand of National Interest in 2024.

The range is a complete ladder from one estate. On the white side, Casal di Serra is the everyday Verdicchio, Plenio is the Riserva, and Historical is the one they hold back for five years to make the case that Verdicchio ages. On the red side, San Lorenzo Rosso Conero is the midweek bottle, Podere is the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, and Campo San Giorgio is the top Conero Riserva, off a single hectare above the sea.

Above those again sit Cùmaro and Pelago, the two reds they are best known for outside Italy, and the Vecchie Vigne Verdicchio.