La Staffa Mai Sentito 2025

La Staffa is one of the leading contemporary producers in Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, founded by Riccardo Baldi in the hills around Staffolo in Marche. Baldi originally trained in economics before returning to his family’s land and fully committing to organic farming and low intervention winemaking. Over the last decade, La Staffa has become a reference point for more precise, mineral driven verdicchio, balancing traditional Marche character with a fresher, more energetic style. Even the winery’s sparkling and experimental wines maintain a clear sense of place and drinkability.

Mai Sentito 2025 is La Staffa’s ancestral method frizzante made primarily from verdicchio with a smaller portion of trebbiano. The name roughly translates to “never heard of it,” a playful reference to how unusual it once seemed to make a bottle fermented sparkling wine from verdicchio in this style. The fruit comes from organically farmed vineyards around Staffolo planted on clay limestone soils rich in calcium carbonate, conditions that naturally give the wine its salty mineral edge and bright acidity.

The grapes are harvested earlier than for the estate’s still wines in order to preserve freshness and keep alcohol moderate. After pressing, fermentation begins spontaneously with indigenous yeast in stainless steel using pied de cuve techniques. The wine is bottled before primary fermentation fully finishes, allowing the remaining sugars to create the sparkle naturally in bottle through the ancestral method. It then rests on its lees in bottle for at least six months before release, building texture and those characteristic bready, yeasty notes without disgorgement. There is essentially no skin contact beyond direct pressing.

The 2025 is lively, cloudy, and intensely refreshing, showing yellow pear, citrus peel, green apple, wild fennel, and white flowers layered with bread dough and subtle leesy savoriness. The palate is dry and sharply mineral, with fine bubbles and a lightly salty finish that feels distinctly Marche. There is an easygoing, convivial energy to the wine, but underneath the immediacy there is real structure and precision, which is exactly why La Staffa has become such an important producer for modern verdicchio.