Cesanese

Cesanese is the signature indigenous red grape of Lazio — the classic wine grape of Rome and its surrounding hills, and long overshadowed by the region's famous whites like Frascati. Grown in the volcanic and clay hills southeast of the capital, it makes perfumed, medium-bodied reds with soft, ripe tannin, fresh acidity and a distinctive floral-spicy character — red cherry and wild berry over rose, violet, black pepper and warm baking spice. It exists as two related varieties, the finer, smaller-berried Cesanese d'Affile and the more widely planted Cesanese Comune, and is the grape behind Lazio's only red DOCG, Cesanese del Piglio.