Pecorino

The story

Pecorino is an ancient variety of the Sibillini Mountains, first named in writing not in its now-famous Marche heartland but roughly 350 years earlier: a 1526 Norcia municipal statute in Umbria already regulates 'vigne de pecurino.' By the mid-20th century it had shrunk to a handful of ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines surviving only because the sandy, high-altitude terrain around Arquata del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno) never supported a phylloxera population. Marche producer Guido Cocci Grifoni, tipped off by sommelier Teodoro Bugari, tracked down the old vigna vecchia at Pescara del Tronto in the early 1980s, took cuttings, and released the first pure varietal bottling, Podere Colle Vecchio, in 1990. In 1997 Abruzzo producer Luigi Cataldi Madonna became the first to print 'Pecorino' on an Abruzzo label, from a 0.8 ha vineyard, about 2,000 bottles. The two-region revival then compounded fast: 213 ha nationally in 1999 to 1,628 ha in Italy by 2016 — an eightfold-plus expansion — crowned by Offida DOCG status in 2011. Umbria's own, much older population has stayed small — 11.6 ha, officially at 'high' genetic-erosion risk — a quieter parallel story the Marche-centred rediscovery narrative usually omits entirely.

Insider story

When Luigi Cataldi Madonna became the first to print 'Pecorino' on an Abruzzo label in 1997 — releasing about 2,000 bottles from a 0.8 ha plot in Ofena — German-language sources credit him with the line 'Nomina sunt numina: to give a name means to grant an identity.' Further south in Spoltore (Pescara), farmers Rolando and Paolo Febo coveted a neighbour's vineyard; when its owner Claudio refused to sell and took offence, Paolo instead fell in love with and married Claudio's daughter. The families reconciled at the wedding and now farm together, naming their joint Pecorino bottling 'Rolland' after Rolando's habitual walking route. Rolando died in 2016, Paolo in September 2025; the wine is now made by Paolo's children, Davide and Laura Febo, and imported to the US by Vero.

Technical deep dive

Contrary to its 'early-ripening' reputation, Pecorino's budbreak, flowering and veraison are all medium — only harvest is genuinely early (precoce), picked mid-October at Norcia (~700m) versus early September at lower-altitude Torgiano; every phenological stage shifts 25-30 days later at high altitude. Vigour is medium-low, measured yields 7.2-8.8 t/ha, commonly trained to cordone speronato at 4,000 vines/ha though the variety does better with long pruning (Guyot/capovolto). Three independent-language sources converge on strong resistance to downy and powdery mildew (a c.1900 Bertazzoni study scored it 10/10 for oidio, 6/6 for peronospora) but only medium tolerance to botrytis and sour rot; sun-radiation sensitivity is disputed across sources. Winemaking is thinly documented: no Pecorino-specific source confirms typical vinification, oak regime, or malolactic practice, and a dedicated orange-wine/skin-contact search found zero Pecorino examples. Ageing potential is contested — French sources citing Ian D'Agata (Native Wine Grapes of Italy, p.388) say it 'keeps easily three or four years' and becomes 'complex and very interesting,' while German sources call it a wine for youthful drinking (about +2 years). It is increasingly used as a spumante base (sustained acidity, floral aromatics) and also made as passito. Sensory: deep straw-yellow with green reflections; intense floral (white flowers, chamomile, acacia) and stone-fruit nose, sometimes spiced even unoaked; high acid (7-8 g/l total, DOCG minimum 4.5 g/l); no true tannin but a structuring 'leggermente amaro'/bitter-almond finish; medium-to-full body (22.1 g/L measured dry extract; DOCG minimum 18.0 g/l); alcohol typically 12-14%+ (DOCG minimum 12.00% vol; Umbria primary sample measured 12.10%).

Industry secrets

Offida DOCG requires a minimum 85% Pecorino and caps yields at 10 t/ha (~70 hl/ha after a 70% conversion), with release barred before 1 March following harvest — the appellation reached plain DOC status only in 2001, DOCG in 2011. Falerio DOC hides two different Pecorino rules under one name: the base Falerio blend caps Pecorino at a maximum 25%, while a separate 'Falerio Pecorino' varietal subtype instead requires the more usual 85% minimum — easy to conflate. Abruzzo DOC, the largest-volume home of the grape (Chieti, L'Aquila, Pescara, Teramo), also sets an 85% varietal minimum. In Controguerra DOC Spumante Metodo Classico, Pecorino need not reach any threshold alone — it shares a combined 30% cap with Chardonnay and Verdicchio atop a 60%-minimum Trebbiano base, aged a minimum 18 months on lees (24 for a vintage/Millesimato wine), both clocks starting 1 January after harvest. Commercially the category is positioned as accessible rather than prestige: Belgian retail lists bottles at €3.99-€9.99, Wine-Searcher indexes roughly 1,647 US listings, and no source found any evidence of a secondary or auction market — a drink-now category, not a collectible one, despite an eightfold-plus planting boom (213 ha in 1999 to 1,628 ha by 2016).

For collectors

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