Castelli Romani DOC

The broad denomination of the volcanic hills south-east of Rome, covering the whole of the Colli Albani complex and encompassing the more restrictive Frascati, Marino, Velletri and Colli Albani zones within it. Castelli Romani is the everyday wine of the capital, and it is made in very large quantity.

The Terroir The registered file describes hilly orography across the Colli Albani with exposures to the west, south-west and south, producing an airy, luminous environment, and a volcanic soil that is naturally free-draining and consequently well suited to the vine. This is the rim and outer slopes of an extinct volcanic complex: tufo, pozzolana and lapilli over deeper basalt, the same ground that supplies Frascati, worked across a far wider area.

The History The file makes a claim worth repeating: the millennial viticultural history here was celebrated by the Georgics, who held the area capable of producing the best wines of the age, and runs unbroken through the medieval period to the present, attested by numerous documents. The Castelli were the summer retreat of the Roman aristocracy and later of the papacy, and their wine has been drunk in the city for as long as there has been a city to drink it.

Grape Varieties Whites dominate: Malvasia del Lazio and Malvasia di Candia, with Trebbiano in its several forms. Among the reds, Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Cesanese and Merlot. As at Frascati, which of the two Malvasias predominates is the single largest determinant of quality.

The Critical Take Castelli Romani is the least demanding denomination in Lazio and it functions largely as a volume category — the wine served in carafes across Rome, and none the worse for that when it is fresh. It should be judged on what it sets out to be. The trap is expecting it to behave like Frascati Superiore: the yields are higher, the boundaries far looser, and the good bottles are the exception rather than the rule. Buy it young, cheap and local.

The Zones Within Castelli Romani encloses several narrower denominations, and the distinction is worth knowing when buying. Frascati and its two DOCGs occupy the northern flank; Marino, Colli Albani, Velletri, Colli Lanuvini and Montecompatri take the other faces of the volcano. A wine sold as Castelli Romani could have come from any of that ground, including sites that would qualify for a stricter name and were not declared as such.

At the Table Roman trattoria cooking without ceremony: cacio e pepe, amatriciana, fried artichokes, porchetta, and pizza. Serve the whites cold at 10–11°C and the reds cool at 14–16°C, and drink the current vintage.

Benchmark Producers Casale Marchese, Fontana Candida, Cantine San Marco, Merumalia.