WhiteLead grape in 1
Passerina
A Marche and Abruzzo white grown around Offida, with high acid, a citrus and green apple character and a light body. It ripens later than Pecorino, which it usually grows beside, and gives a fresher, simpler wine. Good as a still white and increasingly good as a sparkling one.
Worth knowing
The name comes from passero, the sparrow, because birds went for the grapes. It has been grown in the Marche for centuries under at least a dozen local names, and several of them have turned out on examination to be entirely different vines.
Where it is allowed6 appellations