What is Umani Ronchi best known for?

For being the reference producer of the Marche — the estate that proved this quiet Adriatic region makes both a serious white and a serious red. The white is Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi; the red is Conero, built on the Montepulciano grape. Umani Ronchi does both at benchmark level, which is why it's the name people reach for first when they think of the Marche.

Is Verdicchio actually age-worthy?

Yes — and Umani Ronchi is a big part of why people know that. Verdicchio is often sold as a fresh, lemony everyday white, and it's lovely that way, but the best bottlings — especially the Riserva and single-vineyard versions — develop remarkable depth, texture and a savoury, almondy complexity over years. It's one of Italy's most underrated whites for ageing.

What's the red — is it Montepulciano?

Yes. Conero Rosso and Conero Riserva are made mainly from the Montepulciano grape (the same red variety behind Abruzzo's famous reds), grown on the Monte Conero headland just south of Ancona. It gives a dark, structured, savoury wine — Umani Ronchi's Cùmaro is the classic benchmark bottling.

Umani Ronchi

Most wine regions are known for one thing. The Marche has the rarer luxury of a great white and a great red — and for a long time the world barely noticed either. The estate that changed that, more than any other, is Umani Ronchi. If you know the Marche makes serious wine, there's a good chance this is the house that told you.

Working the hills and headlands south of Ancona, in the quiet Adriatic middle of Marche, Umani Ronchi built its reputation on the region's two signatures at once. In white, it's Verdicchio — the age-worthy, savoury, almond-edged grape of the Castelli di Jesi. In red, it's Conero — the dark, structured wine of the Monte Conero headland, built on the Montepulciano grape. Do both at reference level and you become the name people reach for. That's exactly what happened.

Why the Marche needed a champion

For decades Verdicchio's reputation was a shape, not a wine — the amphora-style bottle it came in, sold as cheap seafood white to tourists on the coast. The grape deserved far better, and Umani Ronchi was among the first to prove it, bottling serious Riserva and single-vineyard Verdicchio that aged for years and developed real depth. That work rescued the grape's reputation and dragged the whole region up with it.

The Marche's problem was never its grapes. It was that nobody was making them seriously enough for the world to notice. Umani Ronchi did.

The red side ran in parallel. On the pine-covered slopes of Monte Conero — a dramatic limestone headland dropping straight into the Adriatic — the estate made Conero into a genuinely ageworthy, savoury Montepulciano-based red, a wine to sit alongside Italy's better-known reds rather than below them.

The wines

Two great strands, and it's worth knowing the icon and the everyday version of each.

On the white side, start with a serious Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi — the Riserva or a single-vineyard bottling, not the cheap version. Expect a full, textured white with citrus and orchard fruit and that unmistakable savoury, almondy bitterness on the finish, with the structure to age five or ten years. This is the bottle that turns Verdicchio sceptics. For everyday drinking, the estate's fresher Verdicchio is a brilliant, food-friendly, keenly-priced white in its own right.

On the red side, Cùmaro is the benchmark Conero Riserva — the flagship Montepulciano statement, dark-fruited, savoury, structured, built to age. Above and alongside it sits the estate's ambitious IGT red, a more international-styled blend that's long been one of the Marche's most celebrated bottles; confirm its current composition before you buy. For a gentler introduction, a straight Rosso Conero shows the same character in a more approachable frame.

The setting

The two halves of the estate give you two landscapes. Inland, the Castelli di Jesi is soft green hill country, medieval towns on the ridgelines, the home of the white. On the coast, Monte Conero is the drama — a great forested limestone promontory plunging into the sea just south of Ancona, one of the most beautiful stretches of the Italian Adriatic and the cradle of the red. Between them you get the whole Marche in a couple of days: hills, sea, and a region still gloriously under the radar.

Visiting

This is where the Marche rewards you for its obscurity. Because the region sees a fraction of the wine tourists of Tuscany or Piedmont, a well-planned visit here feels like a discovery rather than a queue. Base yourself near Ancona or in the Jesi hills, and build a two-sided trip: the white country inland, the Conero coast for the red and the beaches. Where the estate offers tastings, book ahead and confirm current arrangements before you travel.

Time it for late spring or early autumn, pair the wine with the region's brodetto — the Adriatic fish stew — and you've got one of Italy's most underrated wine-and-sea escapes.

What to buy

Buy both colours; that's the whole point of the Marche. For the white revelation, reach for a serious Verdicchio Riserva and give it a few years — it's one of Italy's most underrated ageworthy whites. For the red, Cùmaro is the benchmark Conero and the truest statement of what Montepulciano does on this coast. And if you want an easy pair for a table tonight, the estate's fresh Verdicchio and its straight Rosso Conero are the affordable, reliable yes.