Lazio: New Vintages, New Discoveries

BY IAN D'AGATA | JUNE 18, 2019

Lazio is a terrific source of distinctive Italian wines, as the region is blessed with great geologic diversity, a temperate climate and numerous high-quality varieties that can combine to give wines unlike those made anywhere else in the world. My August 2017 Vinous article on Lazio detailed the region’s grape varieties, wines and denominations. Since then, things have only continued to improve.

An enchanting view of Lazio.

Italy’s “Other” Wines: Beyond the Tried and True

Today, consumers and importers tend to clamor for Italy’s best-known wines, such as Valpolicella or Chianti, and rarely look beyond these well-known regions. That is a mistake. Because of Italy’s laxly run tasting committees, many famous denominations are linked to poor wines that offer little in the way of pleasure, sense of place or even varietal accuracy but are nevertheless rubber-stamped and given the right to bear a denomination name. Consumers avidly look for and buy these denominations, not realizing that many of their wines, especially when offered at bargain-basement prices, are anything but exceptional. Clearly, there are numerous wonderful Chianti, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Valpolicella and Soave wines, but once you get past the top examples of each denomination, and especially when considering some of the cheapest bottlings, quality drops off precipitously. (The cost of labor in Italy is very high, and truly cheap wines are just that: cheap, in the most negative sense of the word.) Consumers might want to think about also looking at the best wines offered by less famous regions such as Sardinia, Basilicata and the Marche. Similarly, real surprises can be found when wine-hunting in Lazio, the central Italian region where Italy’s capital city, Rome, is located.

A typical Lazio landscape featuring terraced Cesanese vineyards hugging the forest.

Let me be crystal-clear: Lazio still makes an unacceptable number of neutral and downright flawed wines. Many of the region’s denominations hold little interest for consumers and collectors. For example, even in Italy, wines from the likes of the Colli Lanuvini, Colli Albani, Genazzano and Nettuno mostly appeal only to local wine diehards. Other once proud and famous denominations (for example, Atina and Velletri) are wallowing in the doldrums, both the estates and the wines seemingly unable to capture the spotlight and reclaim the leading roles they once had.