2014 Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica 750 ml

$70/bottle at French Laundry…$14/bottle on WineAccess

Twenty-five years ago, we were peddling wine in the city. Our “book” featured over 100 small family-owned European wineries. We were particularly enamored of the fabulously crisp mineral whites of Northern France and Italy. We worked our butts off on behalf of our suppliers, convincing sommeliers to feature Sancerre, Saint-Véran, and dry Vouvray at a time when restaurateurs were drunk on plodding Napa Valley Chardonnay.

But if there was one European wine route for which we became fanatical torchbearers, it was the tiny Verdicchio di Matelica appellation in Italy’s Marche region. The aromas offered up an ethereal mix of white flowers, green apple, and quince — in cool growing seasons, tinged with anise. Bright, crisp, and deceptively weighty, the top producers of the region — Bisci, Bucci, San Lorenzo, and Sartarelli — were consistently crafting the most compelling EIGHT-DOLLAR bargain whites in the world!

Over the years, much has changed in Verdicchio di Matelica. Cellars have been modernized, making for whites of far greater complexity and mineral purity. Vineyards, still largely worked by family members, are tended with Burgundian precision. Particularly in the case of Giuseppe Bisci and his brilliant agronomist-enologist, Aroldo Belelli, critics raved — not least of which was a former attorney based out of Monkton, Maryland.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate called Giuseppe Bisci’s Verdicchio “one of the finest I’ve ever tasted,” before adding: “Verdicchio is one of the joys of Italian oenology that rarely gets the respect it deserves, and few producers do it better than Bisci.”

Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica now graces the wine lists of the finest restaurants in America, including the likes of Marea, Otto, and Del Posto in New York, as well as what many believe to be the greatest restaurant in the world, Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry!

If you’re traveling to Napa Valley this summer and you’re fortunate enough to have secured a table at The French Laundry, do yourself a favor: Pair Chef Keller’s Sweet Butter Poached Maine Lobster with Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica. Life will never be the same.

The 2014 Bisci Verdicchio di Matelica is drawn from three vineyards, planted in 1978, 1983, and 1988. Bright pale-straw yellow. Intense mineral aromas of white flowers, green apple, orchard pit, and anise. Juicy and intense on the attack, filled with a mouthwatering mix of ripe citrus, apple, and beeswax, finishing with stunning persistence and vibrancy.

$70/bottle at The French Laundry. Just $14 this morning on WineAccess. The last 600 bottles just hit port.