Col di Corte estate winery is located in the town of of Montecarotto in Ancona (AN) province in the Marche region of Italy. Col di Corte produces white wine under the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC and red wine under the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba DOC. The estate was founded by previous owners in the late-1990s under the name Laurentina. It was farmed conventionally. They built the winery in 2000. In 2005 the owners rented out their estate. In 2010 they sold vineyards and winery to the Giacomo Rossi and associates, with 2011 the new owners’ first vintage.

Owner: Giacomo Rossi who is from Rome. He was a producer of TV documentaries. These were often on science but he also made corporate films. His documentary on wine was Natural Resistance. ‘I liked good wine and food but without being obsessive about it. Now I am 100% wine and 0% TV. But I still do commercials’ he told me at the estate in 2019.

Staff :Claudio Caldaroni handles the agronomic and winemaking sides.

Vineyards: 12.5ha of vines. Plus land for a few other crops. The winery is located in San Pietro, a contrada in Montecarotto. Calcareous clay here, whereas soils in Montercarotto are generally is more sandy-clay (‘argilla sabbioso’). Elevation 250-360 metres. The Adriatic is visible from here. Aspect NE facing to the Mise valley (‘Valle di Mise’). 250-280m. Giacomo Rossi added one vineyard with 50 year old vines (which seems to contain biotypes of Verdicchio). Row spacing, training The vines are narrow spaced with half on capovolto. This gives a higher canopy, and thus more shade (but any leaf-plucking is light. They do not want to remove all the leaves around the bunches. Capovolto gives higher yields per plant but Verdicchio is OK with this.

Other crops: Olive trees, field sown crops (eg cereals).

Organics: 2012 Started working with organics. | 2013 Started working with Biodynamics (influenced by the late Stefano Bellotti).

Winemaking Verdicchio is unoaked and normally does not do malolactic fermentation (although the team here have tried 100% MLF).

White wines

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC Classico Superiore, Anno Uno | From Verdicchio in Contrada San Pietro in Montecarotto. 165-250 metres. Mainly North-east facing. Soil: calcareous clay. From the earliest ripening and youngest Verdicchio vineyards (Earliest vineyard to be picked.). 4,100 vines per ha. 9-10 tonnes per ha. Single guyot. Ferments in stainless steel. For early drinking. The label shows the weather conditions for that year. | 2018 Classico Superiore. 13.5%. Wild ferment. Steel. Bottled in spring. Lovely salty, vibrant and intense. 15,000 bottles. | 2019 Classico Superiore.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC Classico Superiore, Col di Corte: 100% Verdicchio. Capovolto doppio. 1,670 vines per ha. 8 tonnes. Unoaked. From Contrada San Pietro in Montecarotto. Mainly north-east facing. 160-250m. Clay–limestone. 12 hour cryoextraction. Then pressed. Steel. 12m on fine lees.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC Classico Superiore, Vigneto di Tobia | The name translates as Tobia Campagnoli’s vineyard. He was an ampelographer for the province of Ancona in the 18th-century, a time when there was little knowledge of winegrowing in Ancona province. He liked and added value to Verdicchio. This wine comes from a single vineyard in Contrada San Pietro in Montecarotto. Mainly north-east facing. Planted late 1970s. 160-280m. Clay-limestone with perhaps a bit more sand than Col di Corte’s other vineyards. Capovolto doppio. 4,100 vines per ha. Get a smoother texture here, yellow fruit, nice length. | Very balanced vineyard. Can get grapes with 14% potential alcohol with a pH of 3.2. | 2016 100% Verdicchio bianco. 14%. 2,702g/l residual sugar. | 2017 100% Verdicchio. 14%. Wild ferment. Lees aged in tank. No oak. Nice salty lemon tang. With lots of salt, and a light tang which works very well. | 2018 L10719. 14.5%. Wild ferment. Powerful Verdicchio, with a rich mid-palate loaded with ripe yellow fruit (Nov 2019).

Sant’Ansovino Bianco: 100% Verdicchio. Doppio capovolto. 2,700 vines per ha. This is the last picking for the Tobia vineyard. From Contrada San Pietro in Montecarotto. Mainly north-east facing. 165-250 metres. Calcareous clay. Skin contact pre-ferment. Stainless steel ferment. Part aged in old oak, on fine lees. | 2012 14%. Creamy yellow fruit with oak influence, a bit heavy compared to the other wines but perfectly drinkable with no rough edges. | 2016 14%. Late picked. Fermented and aged in 500 litre tonneaux. No MLF. 3 tonneaux or so. This is the last picking. Nice mix of oak and yellow fruit with plenty of time on its side, with very well handled acid which was a result of the vintage. Very nice oaked Verdicchio.

No name: 2018 Spent 5 days cold soaking on skins. Then let it ferment spontaneously for 5 days on skins (10 days on skins in total). 100% in steel. No oak. No added sulphites. Will probably be bottled with a crown cap. Will be bottled soon. Verdicchio is a very good grape for this style of winemaking. 2,000 bottles. Tasted from tank.

Pink wines

Vino Rosato Frizzante, Lancestrale: NV (2018) 100% Montepulciano. A salasso from their 100% Montepulciano red called Col di Corte Esino Rosso DOC. One single fermentation in stainless steel. 13.5%. Bone dry. Montepulciano gets reduced easily, this is not reduced at all. When there is smell of reduction Claudio areates via pumping. Racks off most of the lees (‘fondo’) at the bottom of the tank and ferment continues. Then another racking. 3 rackings in total. In bottle the wine throws  a small deposit but by now it is clean so the wine has no stink. A really fantastic wine.

Red wines

Becce: This means ‘drink’ in local dialect. Made from Lacrima. The vineyard is 25km away in Belvedere Ostrense. On the coast, still in Marche. In the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba DOC zone. They used to own it. Too far away for them to manage it. A red made from Lacrima which undergoes two fermentations. The first fermentation is on skins and lasts 4-5 days. Lacrima has hard tannin, reduces easily, so best to do just a quick maceration on skins. Claudio refrigerated part of the blend. He let it referment in spring. This lot was put with the rest of the mass. This meant Claudio added one semi-fermented wine to the one that had been racked and had fermented. The result is a dry wine with 12.5% ald. No added sulfites. Lovely soft freshness on nose and palate, get some cheese at the end. 12.5% alc. Claudio thinks it is dry. Lovely spice to this, dark wild fruit, really nice. 1,800 bottles plus some magnums. Finishes really precisely and clean.

Esino Rosso DOC: 2015 14%. Montepulciano. Low vineyard. Around 30 years old. At the northern limit for this variety. Draw the juice for the ancestrale fizz above, from this. Quite pale colour. Look for freshness and fruit and achieved it. Nice tang to the tannin. Very good. | 2017 14%. 12ppm sulfites (the DOC analysis people said it had 23ppm). Much more concentration compared to 2015. Juicy and deep.

Sant’Ansovino Rosso: 2014 50% Montepulciano and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermented and aged in botti. Fluid and well handled tannin.

Bibliography

Visit to the winery on Thursday 13th June 2019, late morning.