Cori DOC

A small denomination on the north-western flank of the Monti Lepini, an hour south-east of Rome, covering the whole commune of Cori and part of Cisterna. It is the most interesting wine zone in Lazio that is not named Cesanese, and it rests on two grapes almost nobody outside the province has heard of.

The Terroir The registered file describes a mainly hilly orography on the north-western slopes of the Monti Lepini, with exposures to the west and south-west, giving an airy and luminous environment on volcanic soil that drains naturally and is particularly suited to the vine. The Lepini are limestone, but the vineyard ground here carries volcanic material blown across from the Alban complex, and the combination — ash over rock, at 200 to 400 metres, with the Pontine plain and the sea opening to the west — is what keeps the whites fresh.

The History The file traces a millenary winegrowing history of the pre-Roman period, sanctioned by the Statutes of 1327, which through the centuries kept the vine as the principal crop of the territory. Cori was a Latin town before it was a Roman one, and the Temple of Hercules still standing above the old centre — Doric, late Republican, first century BC — is the visible half of that claim.

Grape Varieties Bellone makes the white and is important enough to be bottled as a named varietal under the denomination. The reds are led by Nero Buono, a local variety grown essentially nowhere else, with Montepulciano and both Cesanese in support. Greco and Malvasia del Lazio complete the whites.

The Critical Take Cori is the strongest evidence that Lazio’s problem was never its grapes. Bellone, picked properly, is full-bodied and saline with real texture, and it ages — nothing like the thin Malvasia-Trebbiano blends that ruined the region’s name. Nero Buono is darker and firmer than Cesanese, closer to a Montepulciano in weight but with better acidity and a bitter-herb finish. Neither has any market beyond central Italy, and the wines are priced accordingly. This is where to look if you think Lazio has nothing to offer.

Nero Buono di Cori The grape deserves a note. It is documented only here, was down to a handful of hectares by the 1980s, and has been brought back by two or three producers who bottled it varietally rather than blending it away. It gives deep colour, blackberry and iron, tannin that is present but fine, and it takes oak without disappearing into it. It is the most convincing red variety recovered in Lazio in the last forty years.

At the Table The cooking of the Lepini and the Pontine plain: lamb, coratella con carciofi, buffalo mozzarella with the Bellone, porchetta, and aged pecorino. Bellone at 10–12°C, Nero Buono at 16–17°C.

Benchmark Producers Marco Carpineti, who works organically and is the reference for both grapes, and Cincinnato, the local cooperative.