Winery Santa Barbara
Barbara, Marche
In Barbara, the small town that gives the winery its name, the estate is based in a former convent that became, in the 1980s thanks to Stefano Antonucci, a modern wine business after starting out as a beverage producer. Today Cantina Santa Barbara makes around 900,000 bottles a year, half of them exported, standing out for innovative takes on Verdicchio such as Back to Basics, steel-vinified from organic grapes with indigenous yeasts and no filtration. The visit leads through the once-monastic rooms, now used as a barrel room with French barrique and large tonneaux, and on to the evocative underground cellar dedicated to research on wood ageing. A journey combining the site's historical memory with ongoing winemaking experimentation.