Consider the vast wine-making regione of Lazio in central Italy.  It includes the city of Rome plus four other provinces.  It was once the home of King Latinus, the misty and apocryphal ruler of the Latin tribe and rival of Aeneas. The country is hilly but not mountainous. Lazio and Latin are (perhaps) derived from the same word latus for wide or flat. Today the wines of Lazio are 95 percent white.  Frascati is a common example.  But in a spirit of rebellion, we will choose a red:  Colle Ticchio 2007 produced by Corte Dei Papi in the province of Frosinone, southeast of Rome.

North of Rome we can think of two principal styles of Italian red wine:  the ruddy, brown taste of the Piedmont giants like Barolo and Barbaresco and the bracing fruit and tannins of Tuscany’s Sangiovese-based wines like Chianti.  South of Rome we often find softer wine with the countenance of a favorite grandmother.   These wines are relatively light on tannins and structure.  They are not sweet (although you can find off-dry versions if you wish), but they have an easy familiarity with meat and pasta which makes them welcome at the table.  Excepting fish and cream, they would bring out the best in any meal you could make at home.

Colle Ticchio is made from an ancient grape – Cesanese del Piglio which is blended with Cesanese d’Affile, a stylish arriviste not developed until the eighteenth century.  No one remembers a time when the cesanese grapes were not grown in the district.  Wine made with these grapes is fresh, young, and ready to drink immediately. It is dark red with the light acid taste of early strawberries and cherry tomato.   It is simple and direct.  Part of the fun of this wine is imagining how many hogsheads have been demolished over the centuries – always with the generous taste of the local grape.

We are in the process of demolishing a case at our house.  You can find the taste of the Cesanese at Dedalus for $17.75 a bottle.

Tuta 12/2/08