he Bianchello del Metauro is one of the most traditional white wines of the Marches. It takes its name from Bianchello (or Biancame or Biancuccio), a white-grape subvariety or clone of Greco, that is found only in the Marches and in some ways resembles Trebbiano toscano, and from the Metauro, one of the region's major streams. The Bianchello vineyards are situated in the river's valley.The Metauro is a historic stream, since a crucial battle in which the Romans halted the advance of a Carthaginian army was fought along its course. The Bianchello, or possibly Verdicchio, another white wine of the Marches, is credited with a role in the defeat of Hasdrubal, who was marching southward to join forces with his brother Hannibal. Hasdrubal was killed after the Roman legions wiped out the Carthaginians and their defeat is said to have been due at least partly to the large quantity of wine the soldiers had drunk. War and romance figure prominently in the wine's history.
The famous and somewhat puckish Sante Lancerio, who was cellarmaster to Pope Paul III and the best informed and important writer on vines and winemaking in Italy in the 16th century, spoke of Fano as a town of "good wine and beautiful women." Half of that claim was disputed by Michel Montaigne, who in his journal covering his travels in Italy, praised "the bread, the wine and the fish" of Fano but not its women because he "didn't see any that weren't ugly."
Andrea Bacci, who was the physician of Pope Sixtus V and a professor of botany at the University of Rome, discussed, in a book published in 1596, the "excellent" wines of Fano, "especially those obtained from Malvasie and Trebulane. Good as well are those of the fields and villages near Pesaro, such as the Colli Imperiale...all of which are exported in large quantity to Venice." In this case, Bianchello shares the praise with the Sangiovese dei Colli Pesaresi.
In following centuries, the wine's reputation steadily grew and it is now known far from the gentle slopes of the hills of the Marches. It was entirely appropriate, therefore, that, when the DOC system was established in 1969, Bianchello would almost immediately be received into the program.
