There are certain rules to live by when shopping for budget wines from unfamiliar producers.
Wine with horses on the label: Bad.
Wine with chickens on the label: Usually okay.
Wine with a kangaroo on the label: Eh, it depends on the day, mate.
However well these guidelines have served me in the past, I have no such preconceptions about wines with woodpeckers. (Or about wines that rhyme–if anything, I’m for it.) So it was with an open mind I uncorked the “Il Picchio” Verdicchio.
Verdicchio di Matelica is a tiny DOC in Italy’s Marche region. It’s a stone’s throw from the Marche’s more famous Verdicchio appellation, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. The wines must be at least 85% Verdicchio and are usually drunk young.
Indeed, I found this wine to be dry, simple, and fresh. Sliced apples, lemon juice, and light orange blossom on the nose. It’s light-bodied with hints of grass/hay, fennel bulb, and a cleansing tart-apple finish.
Opening this bottle was part of my quest to taste (and cook something to go along with) all 13 Italian wines in a WSJ Wine club introductory shipment. I served it with seared cod over wild grains and braised Tuscan kale.
I had hoped the combo would work, but it didn’t. The lemon pepper that I used on the fish attacked the wine and produced a mess of metallic and bitter tastes. The appealing herbaceous character of the wine was totally overshadowed, leaving behind a one-note, apple-juice flavor.
I thought I had pegged Il Picchio as a do-anything, easygoing dinner wine, but it proved to be a difficult pairing. (I ended up enjoying the wine and food separately.)
Bottle: Belisario “Il Picchio” Verdicchio di Matelica (2023)
Variety: Verdicchio (100%)
ABV: 12.5%
Suggested retail: $22.99
My rating: 6.6 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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