Is Lazio the Beaujolais of Italy?
Beaujolais is not important because of LaPierre or Foillard. It is important because of Lyon, the gastronomic center of France, the home of the French mother sauces. It is in Lyon where you eat a la francaise, not Bordelaise, or Nantaise, or even Bourgognois…You eat a la francaise. And you drink a la francaise: fresh, delicious, cutting red wines that are designed to cleanse and cheer the palate as the parade of fat rolls past thru your mouth.
Not long ago (1980s-1990s), a few Beaujolais producers decided that they had something to say with their winemaking craft and they upped their game. They decided that there was a true difference in the Gamay between this town and that town, and they all agreed that old vines mattered. The great ones worked low and slow, in concrete and large barrel. They made quality wines for the food of their home.
Lyon is old. Rome is older. Like Lyon, Rome is also the center of the Italian culinary cannon. And like Lyon, it is the place where many of the Italian mother sauces are from: cacio e pepe, gricia, amatriciana, carbonara. And like Lyon, there is a winemaking region just outside of Rome, in Lazio, one that has serviced Roman trattorias and ristorantes for generations; one whose wines have historically been served as simple rosso and bianco. And like what happened in Beaujolais, a group of artisan producers has emerged, and they are focusing on quality as defined by geographical region based on towns and old vines.
This movement in Lazio began in the early 2000s, and it began with young producers who were taking over for their fathers. Prior to this, most of these producers were not even producers; they were growers. And as growers, ‘good’ meant a big crop so a lot of wine could be sold to Rome. No one even considered having a conversation about quality, much less identity.
But these new kids from Lazio had traveled. They had grown up in a grower culture of wine with their fathers, but they had become tasters and appreciators as they left home. They were rightfully proud of their home though. After all, their base entry level DOC is Roma (which was formally established with the 2011 Roma DOC).
So, this new generation were all handed the reigns around the same time (2000-2005), as a collective generation passed the torch, and like any group of young kids do when there’s nothing to lose, they got together and talked and shared and helped each other out. They became a quasi-collective. There was about twenty of them, and they lived in the towns of Anagni, Serrone, Acuto, Paliano, Piglio, and Olevano Romano. If you look at a geographical map of Lazio, you will see these towns make up the western facing, Apenine foothills looking down towards Rome. This is true Lazian Cesanese country.
Like Beaujolais, the government had already drawn some basic sketch of the regions of Lazio. Cesanese di Olevano Romano was granted DOC in 1973 to act as a placeholder for red wine from the region. There were a few other DOCs of note from back in the ‘70s: Est! Est! Est! (1966), Orivieto (1971), and Frascati (1966). But, until 2008 there really wasn’t a serious conversation about terroir and terroir differences. Then in 2008, a few producers from this group wrote the DOCG of Cesanese del Piglio.
In it, the DOCG defines that a wine can be Cesanese del Piglio if it comes from one of these towns: Anagni, Serrone, Acuto, Paliano, Piglio. Essentially, like Beaujolais’ cru villages, the DOCG established the cru villages of Lazian Cesanese. (The Beaujolais-Villages, if you will, is Cesanese di Olevano Romano.) Will we soon see cru vineyard village bottlings soon? Will Alberto Giacobbe release a Cesanese di Piglio Paliano? No. They’re not there yet. This is a region in the beginning of defining itself. We are in Beaujolais circa 1995. Still, the parallel is there in too many ways.
But there’s one more thing to note, where a distinct parallel can be drawn between Beaujolais and Lazio…
Why did Beaujolais blow up commercially in the mid 2000s?...Because of Lyon and its gastronomical connection? No….Because of the crus and the old vines and the evolution of quality? No. Because of dynamic and exciting producers making delicious and inspiring wines? No. Because of LaPierre and the genesis of the natural wine movement? No, it didn’t. Roilette. Foillard. Lapierre…These guys were all there making wine years before Beaujolais was discovered (and for the price of a song btw).
Beaujolais blew up in the 2000s because Burgundy became unaffordable. As Burgundy’s prices rose dramatically at that time, Beaujolais became the last outpost to drink ‘burgundy styled wines’. (And now Beaujolais has over-priced itself, and those buyers have gone west to the Auvergne. I predict they will eventually head Southwest to Limoux.)
So, the same thing is happening in Italy. Barolo is the Italian Cote de Nuits. Montalcino is Left Bank. As prices rise and these wines become unaffordable for every-day consumption, Italian buyers and wine lovers will head outside of these regions. Where will they go? Emilia-Romagna. Le Marche. Abruzzo. Lazio….And what does Lazio offer?
Lazio has Rome. The greatest city in all of Italy.