LAZIO

Interesting Natives with no talk about the Empire.

A little light info to get us all started on Lazio:

Regional Vineyard:

Total Vineyard Size

16,822 hectares is the total size of the regional vineyard including vineyards growing grapes for Quality wines, Table wines & Table grapes

Dedicated to Quality

7,072 hectares are dedicated to producing grapes for Quality wines.

Notable Cru/Zones:

Affile *

Keep an eye out for native red Cesanese !

Aprilia *

Focus on neighbouring natives like Trebbiano Toscano and Sangiovese

Castelli Romani

Cerveteri *

Etruscan origins and the wines focus on Tuscan varietals Trebbiano Toscano, Sangiovese

Colli della Sabina *

No Lazio natives to speak of. Mostly Tuscan varieties.

Colli Etruschi *

No Lazio natives to really speak of. Mostly Tuscan varieties.

Cori *

Look out for native white variety Bellone with min 85% requirement. Or Nero Buono with 85% also needed. Volcanic terrain.

Frascati*

Home to 2 DOCG’s – Frascati Superiore and Cannellino di Frascati both of which require native white variety Malvasia Bianca di Candia or Malvasia di Lazio or Trebbiano Giallo

Gradoli

Marino *

Native variety Malvasia Bianca di Candia

Montefiascone*

Home to the curiously named Est! Est!! Est!!! A blend of local varieties including Malvasia del Lazio (min 10-20%), Trebbiano Giallo (min 25-40%) and Procanico (Trebbiano Toscano min 50-65%) But let’s find out more.

Nettuno

Roma *

This is a new catch all DOC. You’ll find some good stuff if you look hard.

Tarquinia*

Increasing Quality with native white Malvasia Bianca di Candia, Malvasia del Lazio & Trebbiano Giallo

Terracina *

We must try the Moscato di Terracina

Vignanello*

A growing reputation for Quality. Must review the native potential.

Wine Style/Quality:

% RED

20.1%

% White

79.9%

% DOP / IGP

2013 figures estimated 50.6% of wines from Lazio are produced according to EU DOP Quality standards. The region produces 30 DOP wines – 3 DOCG and 27 DOC wines. They also produce 4 IGP wines accounting for 19.1% of production. Table wines account for 29.1% of output.

LAZIO – NATIVE GRAPES

As always, a number of the regions native grape varieties are used only for blending purposes. That said, we’ve listed those NATIVE grapes which we understand might be available as mono-varietals or which are interesting blenders. Naturally, as we make our own discovery, we’ll update these lists.

NATIVE REDS

ABBUOTO

CESANESE *

2 types – Cesanese d’Affile which is the principal variety together with Cesanese Comune, used to produce DOCG Cesanese del Piglio

NERO BUON DI CORI *

Gotta learn about this one.

SAN GIUSEPPE NERO

NATIVE WHITES

BELLONE *

Is this one and the same as Cacchione?

CACCHIONE*

Analysis confirms it’s identical to Bellone, yet as always we’re curious to find and taste it. Will keep you posted as and when.

MALVASIA BIANCA DI CANDIA *

Important native for blending

MALVASIA DEL LAZIO *

Important native for blending but look out for mono-varietals

MOSCATO DI TERRACINA

ROSSETTO

TREBBIANO GIALLO*

Another of the Trebbiano group which is totally unrelated to the others.

OUR STATSOURCES

  • ISTAT – Italy’s Istituto Nazionale delle Statistiche (Census 2010 / Vineyard Production Figures 2013)
  • AIS – The Association of Italian Sommeliers
  • ‘I Numeri del Vino’ – Marco Baccaglio’s top Italian blog – lots of numbers :)
  • Wine Grapes – Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz – lots of great grape stuff – BUY IT !
  • Native Wine Grapes of Italy – Ian D’Agata – extensive – Highly recommend its purchase !
  • Lavinium – Italian wines & food culture. Brilliant. Only in Italian. Great reason to learn Italian!! www.lavinium.com

Vintage Information

All data is intended to be for indicative purposes only due to the variability from vintage to vintage. But we do try to keep ourselves ‘reasonably’ updated :)

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