The Wine Camp Blog

2000 Cocci Grifoni, Il Grifone, Rosso Piceno Superiore

Sleepy Marche is waking up. This rugged region is almost unknown except for the European tourists that crowd its beaches along the Adriatic during the summer months. For years the only wine from Le Marche anyone saw outside the region was the Verdicchio of Fazi-Battaglia bottled in the cute green fish bottle. The wine inside was pleasant enough, but nothing to make anyone remember Le Marche.

Le Marche is indeed waking up and is a hotbed of rapidly improving wines. The indigenous Verdicchio grape, once thought only capable of light, simple whites is turning heads with big rich, complex wines like those of Villa Bucci. Then there are the big, montepulciano based wines of Rosso Conero, where dramatic reds from producers like Lanari, Moroder, and Strologo wines are getting attention all over Italy. Today even Fazi-Battaglia is making some excellent single vineyard wines as is the regions other large producer, Umani Ronchi.

Outside of any of the regions DOC zones, Oasi degli Angeli makes one wine, the spectacular Kurni from 100% montepulciano. Kurni has, in less than five vintages, become one of the most sought after and collectable of Italian wines.

In the south of Le Marche is the Rosso Piceno DOC whose wines have always been in the shadow of the more famous Rosso Conero. While Rosso Conero requires a majority of the montepulciano grapes in their blends, Rosso Piceno can mix and match between sangiovese and montepulciano, more or less at will. The sangiovese in Le Marche just does not have the power it possesses in Toscana and if you want to make great wines you have to use montepulciano. Unfortunately most of the producers in Rosso Piceno favor the higher yields of the sangiovese and the wines are thinner and more tart than those of Rosso Conero, but producers that base their wines on old vine montepulciano can equal the best of Rosso Conero.

It was in 1970, just two years after Rosso Piceno Superiore was granted DOC status that Guido and Diana Cocci Grifoni built a state-of-the-art winery and dedicated themselves to making fine wines in the south of Le Marche. Cocci Grifoni is a true family business with Guido as agronomist and daughters Paola, the enologist and Marilena in charge of sales.

Il Grifone is a Rosso Piceno Superiore produced from 70% montepulciano, 15% sangiovese and 15% cabernet sauvignon all selected from the Messieri vineyard. The wine is aged for twenty months in a blend of large casks and French Tonneaux (500 liter) barrels. This is a rich complex wine offering great drinking pleasure over the next 5 to 10 years.

Tasting Notes: Tenuta Cocci Grifoni, Il Grifone, Rosso Piceno Superiore

Dark bright ruby, Just opaque. Deep round dark fruit aromas: plums and dark cherry. Rich and voluptuous on the plate. Full of ripe raspberry and dark cherry fruit spiced with toasty oak and tar. Bright sweet fruit flavors balanced with a tart spiciness. The finish is long and layered with many flavors and apparent, but well integrated tannins. This wine is packed with ripe sweet fruit flavors, but the oak, earth and tarry components and great complexity. For foods try classic Marche dishes like anatra in porchetta: roast duck stuffed with wild fennel, pancetta, garlic; or quaglie in tegame: quails braised with white wine, pancetta, tomatoes and peas.