The small village of Pesaro sits in the natural beauty of the San Bartolo national park to the north of Italy's Le Marche region. Here, just a few kilometres from the Adriatic coast, Luigi Mancini and his wife Shayle cultivate intense, expressive wines that are amongst the very best in the region. The Mancini family has been making wine here since 1861 and this history is reflected in the continued cultivation of Pinot Noir, fashionable during the early 19th century and symbolic of Napoleonic domination and its influence on viticulture at the time. Today the estate boasts thirty hectares of vineyards planted in calcareous sandstone soils. Along with Pinot Noir (which has received the benefit of intensive clonal study) and Sangiovese, the rare local varieties of Albanella and Ancellotta are grown. Fattoria Mancini is a quality focussed winery and as such the vineyards are subject to varying degrees of sustainable viticulture. They are not yet fully organic but one can't help but feel it is the inevitable next step. Luigi's wines are generally classified as Colli Pesaresi DOC. His 'Roncaglia' is a blend of 75% Albanella (a local white variety once assumed to be Trebbiano Toscano) and Pinot Noir cultivated in vineyards, as you might guess, in the village of Roncaglia.