Vini Doc Roma

From the origins to the Etruscan settlements and the Roman Empire, wine production on the territory has accompanied people’s lives in their food, culture, and religion. While the Imperial Age saw increased wine production as the most suitable lands – the volcanic soil of the hills of Latium, of Caere, and of the Sabina area – were planted with vineyards, its fall between the fifth and tenth centuries AD cause a drastic reduction. The Church regulated the production of the vineyards in Rome and its surrounding territories, and conserved this heritage around monasteries and abbeys, increasing its power when Rome began to repopulate and the demand for wine rose accordingly. Under the pontificate of Paul III at the turn of the sixteenth century, the Roman market directed its attention towards the Castelli Romani, Sabine, and Monti Prenestini areas, because the so-called “romanesco” wine (wine produced within seven miles from the Capitoline Hill, and in particular on the Janiculum, outside the Gate of San Pancrazio, in the Vatican and Monte Mario, and in many other vineyards whose names have remained in Roman toponymy) was not enough to meet the city’s consumption. And also because their quality and characteristics made these wines particularly appreciated. The diversification between romanesco wine and wine of the Castelli Romani area is attested until the nineteenth century, after which time Rome’s urban growth eroded the terrains for vineyards and production grew more distant from the consumption areas, concentrating in those zones that, moreover, had been recognized as most suited: the Castelli Romani, Cerveteri, and the Sabina area. Over the centuries, wine-growing has therefore maintained its role as the territory’s main farming activity, down to our days and to the creation of the Roma Doc denomination, established by a production Regulation, with the purposes of increasing knowledge of it and its spread worldwide.