Pecorino

Pecorino is a revived central-Italian white grape from the Adriatic hills of the Marche and Abruzzo, unrelated to the sheep's-milk cheese that shares its name. Once nearly extinct, it has become one of Italy's most exciting native whites: pale straw-gold and dry, with bright citrus, orchard fruit and a savoury herbal edge, firm acidity and — unusually for an Italian white — real body and structure. Vinified in steel it is crisp, mineral and aromatic; given some lees contact or oak it turns richer and more textured, capable of ageing. Fresh yet substantial, it is the food-loving, sea-and-hills face of the modern central-Adriatic white.