From the atlas
Tenute Rio Maggio
At A Glance
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| Location | Contrada Vallone, Montegranaro, Province of Fermo, Marche |
| Appellations | Rosso Piceno DOC, Falerio dei Colli Ascolani DOC |
| Grapes | Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Pecorino, Passerina |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Winemaker | Tiziana Santucci |
| Farming | Organic, dry-farmed, hand-harvested |
The Producer
Tenute Rio Maggio is a family estate in the Fermo hills of southern Marche, working two DOC appellations from a single vineyard in Contrada Vallone. Graziano Santucci founded the operation in 1976. After his death, his son Simone and Simone's wife Tiziana took over and, from 1997, planted dedicated vineyards for Rosso Piceno and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani. Tiziana leads the winemaking. Their daughter Alessia now works alongside them, bringing the family to a third generation on the same land.
The range is deliberately compact. Two DOC wines, one red and one white, both grown in Contrada Vallone. Vines are farmed organically, without irrigation. Grapes are picked by hand, selected bunch by bunch, and carried to the cellar in boxes holding no more than twenty kilograms. The logic is tight: a small site, a careful harvest, and wines that aim to carry the character of the place rather than the ambitions of the blending room.
Place
Montegranaro sits in the Fermo hills, a predominantly hilly stretch of southern Marche between the Apennines and the Adriatic coast. The province of Fermo occupies territory that falls between the older administrative centers of Ascoli Piceno to the south and Macerata to the north. Both of Rio Maggio's appellations, Rosso Piceno DOC and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani DOC, draw their geographic boundaries from this corridor between those two provinces.
Falerio dei Colli Ascolani is a white DOC built around Trebbiano, Pecorino, and Passerina, grapes that ripen into wines with herbal freshness and dry weight. Rosso Piceno is a red DOC anchored by Montepulciano and Sangiovese, two varieties that produce wines with dark fruit and firm acidity in these hills. The Contrada Vallone site, with its hilly aspect and what the estate describes as an extremely favorable microclimate, grows both red and white varieties for the two appellations from the same ground.
Soil And Site
The Contrada Vallone vineyard, address number 41 in Montegranaro, is the sole growing site for both DOC wines. The land is hilly, which in central Marche typically brings good natural drainage, exposure to air movement from the Adriatic, and diurnal swings that hold grape acidity through the growing season. Soil type, altitude, and vine age are not available in the sourced material and are not asserted here.
Story
Graziano Santucci started with a small, traditionally run operation. While he ran it, he began teaching Simone the work, passing forward the vineyard knowledge he had built since 1976. When Graziano died, Simone and Tiziana did not simply inherit what existed. They chose a direction.
From 1997 they planted specialized vineyards for two specific DOCs: Rosso Piceno and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani. This was a deliberate founding act, not a continuation of what had come before. The choice of appellations fixed the grape varieties, the site, and the style. Organic farming followed: no irrigation, hand harvesting, careful bunch selection, small transport boxes. The stated aim was vineyard-focused wines with characteristics specific to each grape variety and recognizable by their terroir.
Alessia, Simone and Tiziana's daughter, now works in the business. The estate that Graziano began as a small family operation has become a three-generation project organized around two appellations and one vineyard.
Vineyards And Cellar
Organic farming and dry farming together mean the vines are not fed water from outside the site. In a hilly setting with good natural drainage, this keeps the vine under pressure and concentrates what each grape delivers. Hand harvesting with bunch selection at twenty kilograms per box preserves grape integrity between vine and cellar, avoiding bruising and oxidation before fermentation. The estate's philosophy applies this care to each variety separately, which means each grape arrives in the cellar as itself rather than as part of an undifferentiated load.
Fermentation vessels, maceration times, and maturation details are not available from sourced material. What is clear from the farming and handling approach is that the cellar work is intended to follow the vineyard rather than reshape it.
Wines
Rio Maggio produces two DOC wines from the Contrada Vallone vineyard.
The Rosso Piceno DOC is the red, blended from 70 percent Montepulciano and 30 percent Sangiovese, with Montepulciano the larger share of the blend. The 2022 vintage runs at 14 percent alcohol, which reflects the ripening capacity of the hilly Fermo site in a warm season. Montepulciano brings dark cherry fruit and tannic grip; Sangiovese contributes acidity, red-fruit freshness, and a firmer spine. Together they make a wine with body and length that stays within the Rosso Piceno DOC framework, an appellation positioned between Ascoli Piceno and Macerata.
The Falerio dei Colli Ascolani DOC is the white, drawn from Trebbiano, Pecorino, and Passerina grown on the same ground. Pecorino and Passerina both carry natural acidity and aromatic lift; Trebbiano rounds the blend with body and neutral weight. Blend percentages for the Falerio are not confirmed in the sourced material.
In The Glass
The Rosso Piceno leads with dark cherry and blackberry from the Montepulciano, the majority grape in the blend. On the palate the Sangiovese fraction pulls the wine toward red fruit and lifts the acidity, giving the wine a brighter mid-palate than Montepulciano alone would. The tannins are firm, as expected from organically farmed Montepulciano in the Marche hills, and the 14 percent alcohol gives the body weight without pushing the wine toward heat. Dry farming concentrates the fruit without adding sweetness; hand-picked, carefully sorted grapes give the wine clarity rather than the muddy depth that comes from overloaded loads.
The Falerio white opens with the herbal and citrus register that Pecorino and Passerina deliver in these hills. The acidity is present and direct. Trebbiano fills the body, keeping the wine from feeling thin on the finish. It is dry, food-friendly, and built for the table rather than the cellar.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Rio Maggio 2022 Rosso Piceno DOC. It is 70 percent Montepulciano and 30 percent Sangiovese from the Contrada Vallone vineyard, farmed organically without irrigation and picked by hand. The Montepulciano gives the dark fruit and tannic grip that define the style; the Sangiovese brings the acidity that keeps the wine from feeling heavy. At 14 percent alcohol it has enough body to stand beside food but enough freshness to finish cleanly. This is the wine that shows what Simone and Tiziana built from 1997: an appellation-focused red from a single hill site, made without shortcuts in the vineyard or the cellar.
Anecdote
When Simone and Tiziana Santucci took over the estate after Graziano's death, they inherited a small operation built on the traditions he had carried since 1976. They could have kept it as it was. Instead, in 1997, they planted new vineyards from scratch, choosing two specific Marche DOCs, Rosso Piceno and Falerio dei Colli Ascolani, and committing the Contrada Vallone site entirely to those two appellations. The choice determined everything that followed: the grape varieties, the farming system, the harvest protocol, and the style of wine. There was no existing playbook for the combination of those two DOCs on that particular hillside; Simone and Tiziana wrote their own. The vines they planted in 1997 are the vines that supply both DOC wines today.
Final Word
Tenute Rio Maggio is a small estate with a tight, deliberate range: two DOC wines from one Fermo hill vineyard, farmed organically, harvested by hand, and made by the same family that planted the vines. The Rosso Piceno, with its Montepulciano and Sangiovese from Contrada Vallone, is the wine to reach for first. It is honest southern Marche: dark fruit, firm tannins, and enough acidity to hold at the table.
Sources
- https://riomaggiovini.it/en/home/
- https://riomaggiovini.it/en/our-history/
- https://riomaggiovini.it/en/production/
- https://www.tedwardwines.com/collections/rio-maggio
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/rio-maggio-1307411/