Marcanteca began, unofficially, in 2016. We had been visiting wineries, something we’d been doing for years already, and started talking about what it might look like to come back to Le Marche – the region where Giorgio is from but that he had left – and build something around wine. Something useful and ambitious, that could contribute to the local wine industry and take the region’s story elsewhere. Something energetic and serious, to match the passion, labour and energy that producers put into making wine. Something inherently rooted in place, but also outward-looking from the start.

This discussion evolved slowly, organically, one piece at a time against the backdrop of our lives – as we doubled down on our careers, grew our family and navigated some complicated years. Over time, and hundreds of hours of ruminating, hypothesising, running scenarios, imagining possibilities and testing logic, we realised Marcanteca had already grown into itself and was waiting for us bring it to life.

Specificity has never felt limiting for us. The opposite, in fact - choosing to dedicate our project to wine from Le Marche has felt expansive. We affirm the connections across Le Marche’s provinces, and between Le Marche and the rest of the wine world, convinced that a dialogue of openness only serves to create better understanding and better experiences. We are, after all, talking about wine, whose capacity for creating connections between people and places is arguably its most beautiful quality.

And we’re fully dedicated to this place - there is no side catalogue of Tuscan wines, for people who insist on Sassicaia. Nothing in the back room from Piedmonte. We want to show that there is nothing wrong with wanting to drink those wines, impressive as they are, but that you don’t have to on the basis that Le Marche can’t compete.

A Region of Provinces

Building a regional profile for wines from Le Marche that communicates something to consumers like ‘Supertuscan’, ‘Veneto’ or even ‘Sicilian wine’ does, is complicated by administrative history. Le Marche was the last of the Papal States - this silvered thread grouped together five provinces with distinct traditions (not only in viticulture) and diverse geographies.

Le Marche is a vertical region, with provinces stacked on top of one another, meaning that northernmost Pesaro Urbino is closer (physically and culturally) to the neighbouring region of Emilia Romagna, than to Le Marche’s southern province of Ascoli Piceno. Similarly, Ascoli Piceno is more aligned with the next region of Abruzzo than with other provinces in Le Marche. As the Italian journalist Guido Piovene said, Le Marche – squarely in the centre of Italy – Is both the south of the north and the north of the south.

This provinciality can feel almost stubborn, but – to us – it’s the essence of the region, ‘the brands', as Le Marche translates to. We don’t want to flatten this breadth - it’s entirely possible to communicate a regional identity for wine that respects local knowledge and tradition, but also speaks to someone who loves an Australian Riesling or Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

So, stick with us and read along as we share behind the scenes of our family business – the ups, the downs, and everything in between. If you’re local, come and see us! If not, get in touch – we’re always open to chats, challenges and collaboration, and bringing Le Marche, and Marcanteca, to new spaces.

Catherine & Giorgio