morco merli
“To be clear: he doesn’t make wild wines, instead, layers,
weaves, and interweaves the wildness of the Umbrian hills and grape varieties...”
Domaine Overview
Year Founded: 2002
Winemaker: Marco Merli
Location: Colli Altotiberini, Hills off the Tiber river
Size: 7 hectares
Grapes:
Sangiovese, Cigliegiolo,Trebbiano Toscano, Verdicchio, and Grechetto di Orvieto
Farming: Practicing Organic. Naturalista. Abandoned old vines, 40-50 years old.
Production: About 15,000 bottles/year
Over a decade ago, Marco Merli left a life as a fashion designer to become a naturalista in the Umbrian hills just outside of Perugia. Right away he brought an astute attention to detail, with a rigorous selvatica aesthetic. To be clear: he doesn’t make wild wines, instead, layers, weaves, and interweaves the wildness of the Umbrian hills and grape varieties into addictively savory wines, with well placed highlights of bitter and sour.
Marco works various patches of vineyards, often abandoned with interesting old biotypes in the Colli Albertini. Fermentation takes place parcel by parcel, variety by variety, before eventual a final blending in dozens of re-conditioned small cement or fiberglass tanks. Sangiovese, Cigliegiolo, old vine (40-50 years) Trebbiano Toscano, and Verdicchio are varieties you’ll recognize from central Italy. His use of Grechetto di Orvieto (not Grechetto di Todi) in his blends underpins the selvativa esthetic Marco strives for. The variety’s wild acidity and bitterness is cut with techniques, such as partial whole-grape fermentation, and various blending of the different soil parcels in a way that the wild selvatica part remains intact.
