Rome has been drinking the wine made on the hills around it for two thousand years, and that is the whole problem. A Lazio wine region guide has to explain a region whose market was always close enough to reward volume over everything else, which is how the best-known name in the region became a byword for cheap house white.
The geology deserved better. Most of the vineyard sits on the remains of four volcanic complexes, and volcanic soil is the sort of asset other regions build reputations on.
What has changed since the 1990s is that a small number of growers stopped farming for the carafe trade. The wines that resulted are the reason to read past the label.
Four volcanoes and the lakes they left
Britannica describes the region’s structure directly, noting that northwest and southeast of Rome sit four groups of ancient volcanoes, the Volsini, Cimini, Sabatini and Albani mountains, each containing one or more crater lakes. Those craters now hold Bolsena, Vico, Bracciano, Albano and Nemi.
The same entry notes that olive groves and vineyards cover the slopes, with vines concentrated near Montefiascone and on the Alban Hills. That is still an accurate map of where the wine comes from.
Volcanic ground here means tufo and pyroclastic material rather than the basalt of Etna. It drains fast, holds potassium, and gives whites a savory, faintly chalky finish that has nothing to do with oak.
Altitude and water do the rest. The Alban Hills rise several hundred meters above the plain around Rome, and the lakes hold back the worst of the summer heat, which keeps enough acidity in fruit picked this far south.
Frascati and the Castelli Romani
The Castelli Romani are the ring of hill towns on the rim of the Alban volcano, southeast of the city. Frascati is the best known of them, a DOC since 1966 and one of the first denominations Italy created.
The blend is the part worth understanding. Frascati takes a minimum of 70 percent Malvasia, and the rules allow two quite different grapes to fill that quota.
Malvasia Bianca di Candia is productive, neutral and easy to grow in bulk. Malvasia del Lazio, known locally as Puntinata, yields less, ripens with more aroma and gives the wine its apricot and herb character, and the better bottles lean on it.
Scale explains the rest. Lazio has around 20,400 hectares under vine, more than 70 percent of it white, and Malvasia and Trebbiano together account for well over half of everything planted. Those are the two grapes a city orders by the carafe.
A June 2018 issue recorded exactly that composition in a Frascati Superiore it shipped, 70 percent Malvasia del Lazio with 30 percent Greco and Grechetto, grown on an estate in the Frascati zone. Reading which Malvasia is in the bottle is the single most useful skill on this shelf.
What 2011 changed
For 45 years everything made in the zone shared one name. In 2011 the denomination was split, and Frascati Superiore and Cannellino di Frascati were lifted out as separate DOCGs.
Superiore requires higher minimum alcohol and, in Riserva form, a year of aging including three months in bottle. Cannellino is the sweet late-harvest version, an old style that predates the dry wine and had nearly vanished.
| Trait | Frascati DOC | Frascati Superiore DOCG | Cesanese del Piglio DOCG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Dry white | Dry white | Dry red |
| Grapes | Minimum 70% Malvasia | Minimum 70% Malvasia | Minimum 90% Cesanese |
| Established | DOC in 1966 | DOCG in 2011 | DOC in 1973, DOCG in 2008 |
| Minimum alcohol | 11.5% | 12% | 12%, rising to 14% for Superiore Riserva |
| Aging | None specified | 12 months for Riserva | 20 months for Superiore Riserva |
| Vineyard area | About 447 hectares | About 170 hectares | About 142 hectares |
Cesanese, the red case for taking Lazio seriously
Cesanese grows in the Ciociaria hills southeast of Rome, in the Sacco and Anio valleys, and effectively nowhere else. It comes in two forms, Cesanese Comune and the smaller-berried Cesanese di Affile, and the second is the one that makes the finer wine.
Cesanese del Piglio became Lazio’s only red DOCG in 2008 and requires at least 90 percent of the grape. The wine is perfumed rather than heavy, with sour cherry, black pepper and a tannin that grips more than the color suggests.
An April 2017 issue described a family continuing what their father had built over sixty years, the Cesanese of Affile, a red made for relatives and a few friends until they took it further. That is roughly the history of the whole appellation, which sits at about 142 hectares.
North of Rome, and the borders
The Viterbo country in the north, around the crater lake of Bolsena, is the other half of Lazio’s wine map. The volcanic tuff hills there grow Trebbiano, Malvasia and increasingly serious Grechetto.
Orvieto DOC crosses the border here, and the Classico core of it lies in Umbria rather than Lazio. The regional line means less than the geology, which continues straight through it.
The city itself now has a denomination. Roma DOC is a recent creation covering red, white and sparkling wine from the zone around the capital, written for restaurant lists rather than for the carafe trade, and it brings Bellone and Cesanese back under one name.
Lazio’s whites also filled a gap for Tuscan producers. An April 2014 issue explained that because Tuscany is increasingly planted only to red varieties, the club crossed the border into Lazio for its two white wines, one of them from a 100-acre estate eleven miles outside Rome.
Using this Lazio wine region guide at the table
The regional kitchen is built on pork, sheep cheese and pasta with very little on it, and the wines were shaped to match. Frascati handles carbonara, cacio e pepe, fried artichokes and anything with pecorino romano in quantity.
Cesanese is better with the meat end of that menu, particularly abbacchio, oxtail and sausage with beans. Its acidity copes with tomato in a way that heavier southern reds often cannot.
Serve the whites cool but not cold, and Cesanese a little below room temperature. The club’s Italian winery profiles record the Lazio estates it shipped, and the Abruzzo guide picks up the story on the far side of the Apennines.
Lazio FAQ
Why does Frascati have a poor reputation?
Because for decades it was farmed for volume to supply Rome, using the most productive Malvasia available and picking early. The name still carries that history, though Superiore and Riserva bottlings from lower-yielding vineyards are a different wine.
What is the difference between the two Malvasias?
Malvasia Bianca di Candia is neutral and high-yielding; Malvasia del Lazio, or Puntinata, is aromatic, lower-yielding and more interesting. The label rarely says which dominates, but producers who use Puntinata usually mention it.
Is Cesanese worth seeking out?
It is the most distinctive thing the region makes and the only Lazio red with a DOCG. Expect perfume, pepper and moderate weight rather than power, and drink it within about five years.
Does Lazio make anything that ages?
Not much by design, since most of its wine is white and made to drink young. Cesanese Superiore Riserva holds for several years, and the best Grechetto from the north keeps longer than its price suggests.
Lazio is a region whose geology has always been better than its reputation, and the gap between the two is closing slowly from the top. Four volcanoes, five crater lakes, two Malvasias worth telling apart and one red grape that answers for the whole place. The Italian wine regions hub puts it beside Tuscany, its neighbor to the north.