Zena

Maria Zenobia Sassaroli is a lifelong grower of some of the Jesi area’s best Verdicchio grapes, which is to say, some of the best white grapes of Italy. With 53 hectares in the prime Cupramontana Commune (“The Capital of Verdicchio”) at 500 meters above sea level, Zena, as she is known, has many suiters.

Most Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi vineyards average half the altitude of Cupramontana. Not only, but almost all Jesi vineyards, in the Cingoli and Senigallia Communes for example, lay in lower lying lazy hills that tend to look east, wide open to the Adriatic sea’s bounty. But up in Cupramontana, contrarywise, vineyards often face west absorbing the direct intense influences of the Appennine mountains.

It was just a matter of when Zena would decide to bottle herself. This is so right up our alley at MdeG –i.e., growers evolving to be producers— and we sniffed each other out. If she had asked me to suggest an enologist for her estate I would have said hands down: Aroldo Bellelli. Auspiciously he was already on board.

Given the vineyard pedigree do not be surprised if Zena Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is significantly more substantial than others encountered. Its power and structure, spikey acidy and stony minerality are reminiscent of the “montain wine” Verdicchio di Matelica. Still, shining through comes the Jesi’s solar and saline sapidity exuding citrus and underripe stone fruits punctuated with intermittent tiny twinges of bitterness.