Marche is one of Italy’s most underrated wine regions. Tucked between the Apennines and the Adriatic, it has the bones of a great Italian wine region: hillside vineyards, cooling coastal influence, strong native varieties, excellent food culture and deep agricultural history. It has simply never shouted as loudly as Tuscany or Piedmont, which is part of the appeal.

Madonna Bruna sits in the hills around Fermo, just inland from the Adriatic coast. This is classic Marche country: rolling hills, sea breeze, fertile soils and vineyards between 100 and 300 metres above sea level. The coastal influence is key, helping the grapes ripen fully while keeping freshness and balance in the wines.

The estate belongs to the Petracci Giulietti family, whose agricultural roots in Marche go back more than 300 years. The modern wine project began when Ferruccio Petracci acquired the land in 1967, before his son Paolo planted the first vineyards and brought the family’s winemaking project properly to life. Their first estate vintage was released in 2002 from the newly built winery.

Madonna Bruna is rooted in the native varieties and landscape of southern Marche. Pecorino, Passerina, Sangiovese and Montepulciano all belong naturally here, but the two wines we are importing focus on the estate’s strongest cards: Pecorino and Montepulciano.

Pecorino is one of central Italy’s most interesting native white grapes. Naturally low yielding and capable of holding freshness, it gives wines with real structure, citrus fruit, herbs, almond, texture and a saline edge. Madonna Bruna’s Spera di Luce Riserva shows this side of Marche beautifully: fresh, savoury, coastal and properly gastronomic.

Moresco Riserva is made from 100% Montepulciano, a grape too often associated with simple, generous reds but capable of far more when grown on good land. In the hills around Fermo, with Adriatic influence and careful Riserva ageing, it becomes dark-fruited, savoury and structured, with black cherry, plum, wild herbs, leather, spice and cocoa.

For Brix, Madonna Bruna represents exactly what makes Marche so exciting: a proper regional estate, working strong land, with family heritage, native varieties and wines that overdeliver when compared with more famous Italian regions.