Ancient Rome

 

Caravaggio, self portrait as sick Bacchus.

Somehow our visit to Rome over a year ago never got written up even though it was so interesting and enjoyable. Ancient history indeed but you can go there and find that nothing has changed. Eternal indeed.

Let's start with our search for what wine the Romans drink. Researching the internet we found a Vino Sfuso store offering 20 different wines on tap. That was way more than any of the other Vino Sfuso shops we had found anywhere else so we took a taxi to the address, Via Mauri 1. 

Arriving there, no sign of the shop 'La Cantinetta,' We are no strangers to trying to find a shop that turns out to be some online operation working out of a flat in some apartment block, so at first that's what came to mind. We called the number and a lady answered;

La Cantinetta, buongiorno.

Siamo a Via Mauro 1 ma non vediamo il negozio.

After some to-ing and fro-ing it emerged La Cantinetta - and the signora - were in Varese, not Rome.

Another Slotovino disaster!

But we were not to be put off and immediately triggered plan B. This time we were in the right city and even at the right address for ,Vini Sfusi di Qualita,' one of several outlets of this name. It was closed of course.

On to another market.

Success at last. There was Gustavino 

and Azienda Agricola San Giovanni.

At Gustavino we counted some 18 varieties;

Chardonnay

Gewurtztraminer

Greco

Muller Thurgau

Ottonese (Bombino)

Passerina

Pecorino

Pinot Bianco

Prosecco

Riesling

Sauvignon Blanc

and something called Vino Bianco Verriccino*. 

Cesanese

Merlot

Montepulciano

Pinot Nero

Primitivo

Shiraz

*Can anyone tell us what Vino Bianco Verriccino is? Verriccino comes up with Verdicchio on Google but nowhere is that actually stated as a synonym. There is no town in Italy called Verriccino. The Bianco di Olevano found also in this shop refers to Olevano, a town in Lazio and not a grape.

Over at A.A. San Giovanni, a smaller selection but still interesting;

Falanghina

Vermentino

Aglianico

Cesanese

Nero di Troia

Sangiovese

these Vino Sfuso shops maintain the local varieties while casting their nets a bit further than those in Venice for example. How wonderful to find local produce maintained as is still the case all over Italy.

Puntarelle were in season

Romanesco of course.

Cesanese is the red grape of Rome. We have recognised its potential previously but something was missing. Maybe Jamie Wolff of Chambers Street Wines (NY) has put his finger on this;

Cesanese is the most important red grape in Lazio (the region around Rome). Cesanese was the house wine in many Roman trattorias in the 1970s and 1980s; it could be pretty crude, but we have fond memories of lively wines that went perfectly with carbonara and saltimbocca. We’ve tasted many recent attempts to revive and "improve" Cesanese that were over-extracted, over-oaked, international-style wines that negated all that was interesting and distinctive about the grape. But now there are quite a few fine examples out there, and our faith is restored: Cesanese actually can make wonderful, vivid and vivacious wine. Cesanese isn’t (or shouldn’t be) deeply colored, it isn’t a heavy wine, and the best examples have bright fruit and spicy / peppery aromatics which persist on the palate. For what might be a useful reference: in some ways Cesanese reminds us of Pineau d’Aunis, with similar weight and structure and good complexity and persistence at a relatively young age.

Plenty of Cesanese in the supermarkets.

And this being Italy, there was another contender for local hero; Nero Buono. D'Agata calls it 'an up and coming variety' and also

'Nero Buono is one of Italy's least-known native grape varieties, but as is often the case, one that has a lot to say...the fact is that Nero Buono ...can be the source of excellent, midweight red wines.'

Winesearcher Pro gives only two sources of Nero Buono wines currently available in the UK.

Bellone is in our view the white hero of Lazio. You can find it in some of the better versions of Frascati. Bellone does somewhat better than Nero Buono in Winesearcher with 8 listings.

On to historic Trimani (1821) 

There is always something to buy at Trimani. This time an 11.5% Bardolino. It was very good too.

If Trimani then Enoteca Costantini was obligatory.

The 'fratelli' at Costantini assured us that Granazza was a rare grape variety. We passed on this because we weren't sure if we believed them and also because the bottle was not cheap.  

Reunited with our reference books we discovered that Granazza is a synonym for Vernaccia di Orestano, itself a relatively rare grape variety from Sardegna. It is an ancient variety with a torrid back story involving all sorts of other local and non-localVernaccias to which it is unrelated. D'Agata writes that Contini's Antico Gregori is not just the best Vernaccia di Orestanos but one of Italy's greatest wines. So maybe not a let-down after all.

Our best drink on this Roman holiday? The hot chocolate at the Pasticceria d'Angelo. Every bit as good as it looks.