Verdicchio is hardly an origin that springs to mind when talking about great wines; but this wine is either great or nearly so. My wine guy at the Hyde Park Binney's was raving about it, especially since it had been reduced from about $12 to $6.After trying a bottle, I bought a case, and it's disappearing fast.
I have no idea where Matelica is, or if Bisci has any sort of reputation. The label gives a simple DOC certificate, and a bottle number out of a total of 74000. The bottle itself is unusually thick; not something I'd notice, but my wine guy said this is the mark of a special or at least careful bottling.
The wine is dryish, heavy bodied for a white, about the same as a Gewurtztraminer or California Chard, and medium amber colored. The taste is striking but hard to describe. It's reminiscent of a good Chablis, not in flintiness, but in the predominence of a stone/spice taste, slightly augmented by oak, over a medium toned fruit. I wish I could be more precise, but my meager vocabulary is defeated; the stone taste is perhaps slate, but not like any other region's I know, the spice, pepper with allspice, the fruit is close to apricot with a deeper, almost red wine, touch of something tropical or berrylike. The nose includes subdued floral aromatics. It goes superbly with white fish or tuna, and I also enjoy it on it's own.
I'd recommend it highly at any reasonable price if you should spot it.