Our five favorite wine towns
Our five favorite wine towns: Lazio is the most underrated wine region in Italy.
Now entering our fourth year doing TraveLazio, dedicated to day trips from Rome, we have often featured wine. After all, Lazio is arguably the most underrated wine region in Italy. It has gone from a producer of bad table wine for the masses in Rome to professional wineries emphasizing quality over quantity.
During our twice-monthly trips around the region, we make a point to try the local wine. Cesanese. Trebbiano. Bellone. These are all wines from Lazio that are inexpensive, tasty and fun to discover and take home. Most are good. Some are very good. And the area around Frascati has become one of the top wine producers in the country.
Lazio wineries have tasting rooms, all of which are reasonably priced and include finger food. The beauty of Lazio wineries is they don’t have the rep of other region’s wines and aren’t nearly as crowded. You can talk to the owner, the winemaker and see the facilities. For a summary, we are listing the top five towns for wine. The competition is so close, we list them in alphabetical order:
Our five favorite wine towns: The grapes and wines of Cantine Santa Benedetta.
About two dozen wineries covering more than 1,100 acres (472 hectares) 12 miles southeast of Rome are around the pretty, historic town of Frascati. Here are two places we visited and recommend:
Info: Cantine Santa Benedetta, Via Frascati Colonna 35, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy, 39-06-941-7511,
https://johnhendersontravel.com/lazio-wines-rising-on-the-italian-international-wine-scenes/
9:30 a.m.-1 p.m., 3:30-6:30 p.m .Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday. Wine tastings €30.
Located just a 10-minute drive east of Frascati, the oldest winery in the Frascati area has a tasting room that’s 324 years old and made of polished wood with seven glass chandeliers. Try their Complexus, a Malvasia-Bellone blend.
Info: Cantina del Tufaio, Via del Tufaio, Via Cancellata di Mezzo 30, Zagarolo, Italy, 39-06-95-24502,
http://www.cantinadeltufaio.it/
9 a.m.-12:45 p.m., 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday.
Wine tastings €40 per person for two people and €35 per person for four. Started in 1881, owner Claudio Loreti has some good stories about wine production in the old days.
Try their Malvasia-Sauvignon Blanc blend and their Merlot. It’s nine miles (15 kilometers) east of Frascati.
Our five favorite wine towns: Pamela Garra of Di Marzio winery holds a bottle of Vallefiara
and their Lanoios (bottom).
Every town in the zone of Castelli Romani southeast of Rome in the Alban Hills seems to have its own local wine. What makes the wine in Lanuvio special, 18 miles southeast of Frascati? The sea. No town in Castelli Romani is closer to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The distance is only about 12 miles (20 kilometers). The salt in the air over the vineyards creates a natural acidity in the grapes which enlivens the wine and makes it more crisp. Also, the volcanic soil all over Castelli Romani provides natural ingredients that prevent headaches.
We stopped at the Di Marzio winery, a cork pop from the town’s main tower. It’s a small winery, one of five in and around Lanuvio. Di Marzio produces only 10,000 bottles a year but I had a terrific white wine called a Vallefiara. It’s 70 percent Malvasia and 30 percent Trebbiano Toscano and terrifically crisp with flavors of yellow fruit.
My favorite was the red Lanoios. It’s 100 percent Merlot, which in the U.S., often means headaches within two hours. This tasted much more than a regular table wine, with heavy doses of red fruits and herbs. Best part? I bought a bottle off the shelf for only €15.
Info: Di Marzio, Via Monsignor Valerio Massaccesi 5, 39-06-8354-3908,
https://www.aziendaagricoladimarzio.it/,
info@aziendaagricoladimarzio.it,
9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 4:30-7 p.m.Tuesday-Saturday.
Our five favorite wine towns: Montefiascone’s Milioni Caffe’ serves Cotarella’s Syrah.
Located 3.7 kilometers (two miles) south of the town’s Centro Storico, the Falesco Famiglia Cotarella winery covers 280 hectares (700) acres). The Cotarella family has been in the wine business since the 1960s and the brothers Renzo and Riccardo opened Falesco in 1979.
Located 60 miles north of Rome, it has become one of the best wineries in Lazio. It won the Iconic Wines & Wineries – Italian Excellence award from Forbes Italy. Wine tastings include two wines and a visit to the wine cellar. It lasts 90 minutes and has a two-person minimum.
At the Milioni Caffe’ just below Momma Pappa restaurant, I had the 2022 Falesco Syrah and it was very good. The company website describes it as “A wine with an intense colour and violet reflections, on the nose its scent is enhanced by hints of fresh fruit, cherry with spicy notes …” It retails for €12.55.
Info: Famiglia Cottarella Winery, Via Cassia 94, 39-07-61-827-032,
https://www.famigliacotarella.it/en,
9 a.m.-1 p.m., 3-7 p.m.
Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday.
Our five favorite wine towns: Emanuele and Mario of Cantina Mario Terenzi.
As you enter this town 45 miles east of Rome, Cantina Mario Terenzi is a small unassuming shop that serves some of the most award-winning wines in Lazio.
This winery has been in the Terenzi family for four generations dating back to 1912. They’ve won numerous awards such as back-to-back WineHunter Awards in 2023 and ‘24. His Nero dello Scalambra won the Medaglia d’Oro (Gold Medal) in 2015.
Enter and Mario and his son, Emanuele, will give you some samples from the huge tanks of wine. You can even get a three-liter tub of their Cesanese for only €9. I bought a nice 2022 Cesanese Superior for €15. You can arrange wine tastings by appointment.
Info: Cantina Mario Terenzi Via Prenestina 587, 39-07-751-431-152,
www.antichecantine.it,
Our five favorite wine towns: Claudio Loreti, owner of Zagarolo winery Cantina del Tufaio.
A tradition that started in 1881, Cantina del Tufaio is a winery on the outskirts of town. Owner Claudio Loreti has a big tasting room where he rolls out his excellent Malvasia-Savignon blend and a real smooth Merlot.
Tufaio is one of the wineries that transformed Lazio wine from quantity to quality. In the 1990s, the old guard handed down their wineries to their kids and the younger generation decided, instead of producing grapes for bigger companies, it would make their own wine. The change coincided with the improvement of winetechnology.
The winery, 20 miles southeast of Rome, organizes eco tours and wine tastings with local food products.
Info: Cantina del Tufaio, Via Cancellata di Mezzo 30, Zagarolo, 39-06-95-24-502, 39-328-31-39-537,