2022 Santa Barbara ‘Le Vaglie’ Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

WSI93+ VIN91 A lovely mint herbal tinge gives way to sweet smoke and Granny Smith apples as the 2022 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Le Vaglie opens in the glass. Seductively smooth and ripe, this excels with its contrasts of sweet and salty as ripe orchard fruits and mineral tones mingle throughout. It finishes long and fresh with nuances of candied lime and green melon that pinch at the cheek. Le Vaglie demonstrates tremendous balance and remains a remarkable value.

Stefano Antonucci’s dynamic and candid personality is captivating. This irresistible drive and energy is also what led him, in 1994, to make the drastic decision to change his life direction and return to the small village of his childhood, Barbara, in the heart of the Marche region, giving up his job as a banker. Stefano had always been intrigued by the world of wine and also deeply connected to his territory and so, he began the transformation of his family’s small cooperative winery into the Santa Barbara Winery of today, a reference point for exceptional quality in the Marche.

The vineyards are 25-40 years old and encompass an area of about 45 hectares, from the rolling hills of Barbara, across Serra de’ Conti, Montecarotto, and Arcevia up to Morro d’Alba and Cupramontana. The particularity of these areas lies in the soils, water-rich clay with some calcareous and gravelly areas, occupying a strip of land bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Apennines to the west.