Offida

Offida is the benchmark appellation for Pecorino, a grape that was effectively extinct in the 1970s and is now one of Italy's most sought-after native whites. The zone sits in the Piceno hills of Ascoli Piceno and Fermo, between the Sibillini mountains and the Adriatic, and it produces a dry white with an unusual combination for Italy: firm, mouth-watering acidity carried on a genuinely full body. Grapefruit and green apple over sage, thyme and aniseed, a flinty saline finish, and — despite the name — nothing whatever to do with the sheep's-milk cheese.