Andrea Felici

BACKGROUND 

Between Apiro and Cupramontana, right at the heart of the lands of Verdicchio, the Felici winery has been devoting their utmost care to the vines for generations. They strive to make true wines, telling the story of their wonderful land and, to some extent, of themselves personally, of passion, and determination, by which they have made many sacrifices and a few privations to go on and always try to get the best from our ten hectares of vineyards. They have made it, at last, or so it seems, but there is still a long way to go for their vision. This is why they make one small step ahead every year, as Verdicchio, the world’s greatest white grape, demands.

The Terroir

Verdicchio, the King of White Wines, a Red Wine disguised as a White one. Its origins are lost in centuries, but then converge into the only land where it can always give its best. It is a strong, full-bodied variety of grapes, which tends to late ripening and favours well-exposed hilly regions and calcareous-clayey soils, preferably not too dry.
It has excellent sugar-development properties and good maintenance over the acidity contents, also in very hot years, thanks to its ripening process, which is always slow and progressive.
The wine is very well recognizable, with its green tones and its perfumes, sometimes almost salty, its powerful mineral notes and its almond-like backtaste, as well as a rare ability to sustain long bottle ageing with excellent results.

Verdicchio only gives its best in the Marche region, between the Adriatic sea and the Apennine mountains, in sometimes narrow, sometimes softly sloped valleys, always swept by a gentle breeze, sometimes at considerable altitudes characterized by wide temperature ranges. The territory of Apiro ensures its best expression: located on a hill at the feet of Mount San Vicino (m 1479), at an altitude of 516 m above sea level, it has just more than 1500 inhabitants. The landscape is wonderful, a green valley with tilted slopes, covered with beautiful woods and vines, marked by the high peaks of Gran Sasso and Maiella that stand out towards the horizon, in the south, and towards the top of Mount Catria, in the north.
The climate is warm and temperate with generous rainfall throughout the year. The mean temperature is 13 degrees centigrade with a constant breeze throughout the year, and a wide temperature range in the summer and autumn.

THE WINE

The vineyard is the heart of the Andrea Felici entire undertaking. Sometimes it drives them mad, and on other occasions, it makes them rejoice. It’s there, nevertheless, that they spend a considerable portion of their lives. The winery tries to comply with the grape’s demands and thus allow its personality to emerge, without unwarranted strain or tension. They strive to obtain each year the proper quota of production, thus avoiding excessive falls in yield. The crops are harvested exclusively by hand, placing the clusters in small boxes and pressing the grapes in the spaces of a few hours after they have been removed from the vine.
Two types of wine are produced, namely a Cru and Cuvee. The “Cantico della figura” is our Cru, which proceeds exclusively from grapes grown in San Francesco’s vineyard, one of the most important components of our farm. Our Cuvee, conversely, called “Andrea Felici” is made from a blend of grapes harvested in various other vineyards on the farm.
The wine is allowed to mature and mellow in vitrified vats of cement and stainless steel for a period much longer than the minimum prescribed by disciplinary regulations.
The aim is to make available high-quality wines, characterized by long life, typicality and distinctiveness, that induce the consumer to exercise keen sensorial perceptivity and profound reflex ion, thereby not only gratifying his palate, but likewise generating a deeply emotional experience. The end result is a wine ready for immediate and pleasurable consumption, which is no less exquisite if opened even years later, when its flavor and mellowness will have reached its culmination.