Glou-Glou is your rendezvous with natural wines from all over Europe, with forgotten grape varieties and ancestral winemaking methods brought up to date.
Every week, Zeweed brings you healthy wines to share with friends all day long. To be drunk with or without moderation, but always in the Glou-Glou spirit.
Today, we’re off to discover the wines of Lazio.
Continuing my escapade in Italy, I’d like to share with you my crush on an estate in the Lazio region (Lazio in Italian), “Corte dei Papi”.
Lazio is a very old wine-producing region (since Etruscan times), but in the 20th century its wines were not renowned, as producers favored quantity over quality.
Today, the situation has changed dramatically, and even if Lazio’s wines are still little known abroad, talented winemakers are producing marvellous wines.
Located 60 km southeast of Rome, Corte dei Papi covers 200 hectares, including 25 hectares of vines in their final year of organic conversion.
The vines are on average 20 years old and are planted mainly with native grape varieties, such as Cesanese in red, Malvasia del Lazio and Passerina in white.
An old sheepfold converted into a winery, state-of-the-art stainless steel vats and old barrels for the reds, the estate combines tradition (hand-worked vines, no chemical treatments) and technology (temperature, humidity and light control).
The estate’s whites are either single-varietal (Passerina) or blended (Malvasia, Viognier, Sauvignon).
I loved the Passerina del Frusinate (100% Passerina), a dry white with great freshness and intense flavor.
Cesanese, the region’s emblematic red grape variety, produces several interesting types of red here, with quite different characteristics depending on the plot of production and aging (in stainless steel or in barrels).
I particularly liked the Colle Ticchio, a fresh, fruity red without barrel aging. A thirst-quenching wine ideal for summer, for any occasion.
The estate’s other red wines are much rounder and more intense, to be enjoyed with a good pasta or roasted or stewed meat.
The red wine labels feature visuals of the cathedral of Anagni (12th century), a town close to the estate, which is considered the second Sistine Chapel, with its frescoes by the Cosmati, a famous Roman family of artists.
All the estate’s wines are well worth a detour, and I also had the opportunity to taste a magnificent “spumante” rosé, dry with fine bubbles and great freshness.
The Cortei Del Pape website can be accessed via this link.
Finally, if you’re in Rome this weekend, don’t miss the Vini Selvaggi fair, the great celebration of natural wine, on 3,500 m2 of open-air grounds, with 60 winemakers. All the information you need to access it is available here
