La Valle del Sole

MArche, Italy |  2018

The Marche region of Italy is full of discoveries, with many small family estates relatively undiscovered. There is a reason for that. When you are a small family business, often times you don’t have the time to market and travel. Such is the case with La Valle del Sole, a winery introduced to me by our friend Alberto Taddei of Selvagrossa.

Hailing from 11 hectares of certified-organic vineyards in historic Offida, La Valle del Sole is a fourth-generation family estate led by Silvano di Nicolò and his daughters Alessia and Valeria. Alongside of Alessia is her husband, Alessandro d’Angelo, who you can often find working in their beautiful vineyards. 

Cultivating native varieties like Pecorino, Passerina, and Montepulciano with vines aged between 20 and 60 years, they’ve honed an approach rooted in listening to the land—organic, hands-on farming that started in earnest in 1990.

The 2018 Offida Pecorino is a masterclass in regional expression: grown on clay-sandy soils at nearly 300 m elevation, gently harvested, cold-fermented, and aged six months on the lees in concrete, followed by at least six months in bottle. The result is a white wine of clarity and tension—with lifted citrus, delicate herbs, saline mineral tones, and a lively, energetic finish that carries the story of Marche’s embrace of terroir and tradition. This is not the current vintage of this wine, as the 2022 also arrived recently. We special ordered some of an older vintage to show you the magical nature of Pecorino and how it can age. Bring this to your favorite BYOB sushi restaurant, it is especially good with simply prepared crab or even hamachi.