Curious about the ancient grape Cesanese during my current tasting tour of Italy, I took a detour from Rome’s tourist scrum to discover more. Cesanese is an empyrean variety, firm of tannin and prone to heady alcohol that rises fast, too often before optimal physiological ripeness. Yet this wild and beautiful variety is being tempered by a new guard of producers – all the more reason to come to Rome, drink local and head toward Olevano Romano and Piglio, where the superior Cesanese di Affile biotype is capable of magic.
It’s a magic born of deep red, ferrous volcanic soils, melded to a tongue of white, or “café latte clay,” in propitious sections, as my dutiful guide, winemaker Gabriele Graia, told me. Graia is from Lazio but is also the winemaker for Bodega Chacra in Argentina’s Patagonia region. His heart is surely here, though, as mine would be if I were a local – on home turf!
Among the new guard of Cesanese producers, La Visciola is incredibly exciting. So much so, I reckon that their suite of single micro-vineyard offerings comprise among the most inspiring wines tasted across my six-week journey from Veneto to Tuscany and now, Lazio.
Their 2021 Mozzato cru, firm, darker and more fibrous, rivals the redder-fruited, more febrile 2021 Ju Lattaro. Yet in that moment, embalmed with the incandescent warmth of La Visciola winemakers Piero and Rosa Macciocca, coupled with a chunk of head cheese and bread, the Ju Lattaro was the wine I reached for again and again! A psychologically reassuring 2 ppm of SO2 pre- and post-bottling, this is clean as a whistle and life-affirming. Believe!
– Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor
