La Distesa's Corrado Dottori - the Frank Zappa of orange wine

I’m wondering around a small winery in Marche’s Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi region. Frank Zappa pours me barrel samples of bright orange juice. Any minute now, I expect him to strap on his guitar for a blistering avant-rock solo. Then I pinch myse

Almost every week, I select an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed my attention. View the whole series here.

I’m wondering around a small winery in Marche’s Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi region. Frank Zappa pours me barrel samples of bright orange juice. Any minute now, I expect him to strap on his guitar for a blistering avant-rock solo. Then I pinch myself.

That’s not really Frank but rather Corrado Dottori of La Distesa, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Zappa of the early 1970s: Long straggly hair, skinny frame, jazz beard. While Zappa’s weapons of choice were an electric guitar and one of the tightest rock ensembles ever toured, Dottori works with seven hectares of beautifully tended organic vineyards and some decidedly home-made open-top oak fermenters.

Just as Zappa (who had Sicilian roots) was one of a kind, so Dottori is unique in the Verdicchio region. He’s part of the Terroir Marche group of 16 organically certified producers, but hi…