The Agro Pontino was reclaimed marshland when Berardino Santarelli bought the property in 1967, and Casale del Giglio's modern identity was forged in 1985, when Berardino and his son Antonio joined Milan University's Attilio Scienza, Conegliano's Angelo Costacurta and San Michele all'Adige's Fulvio Mattivi to plant close to sixty experimental vine varieties on land with no viticultural tradition. The project compared the maritime climate of the Pontine plain with Bordeaux, California and Australia, and by 1990 the European Community had authorised Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Syrah, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon for the province of Latina largely on the strength of the estate's data.
Day-to-day work today is led by Antonio Santarelli and winemaker Paolo Tiefenthaler, who trained at the Fondazione Edmund Mach in Trentino. The estate now manages 180 hectares of cordon-trained vineyard and twenty-two labels: seven whites, one rosé, seven reds, one late-harvest sweet wine, three grappas distilled from estate pomace, and an extra-virgin olive oil. The portfolio is unusually broad for a single Lazio producer, and is the direct legacy of the 1985 trials.
Bellone, the native white grape of the southern Lazio plain, anchors the white range in Anthium and the Radix Bellone Riserva, while the rare Biancolella from the volcanic island of Ponza appears in Faro della Guardia. Cesanese del Lazio, the region's most serious red grape, leads Matidia. The two wines that have brought the estate international attention, however, sit on the international side of the cellar: Mater Matuta, a Syrah with a touch of Petit Verdot named after the Roman goddess of dawn, and Aphrodisium, a sweet late-harvest blend of Petit Manseng, Viognier, Greco and Fiano.
Casale del Giglio is Equalitas certified and a member of the SQNPI national integrated farming standard, with a published Sustainability Report and a parallel archaeology programme that documents the Roman and Volscian past of the Agro Pontino. The cellar also runs a research project, The Origins, that traces founder Berardino Santarelli's roots back to the Apennine town of Amatrice. Visits run by appointment from the working winery on the Strada Cisterna-Nettuno: a sommelier-led tour of the vineyards and cellar followed by a tasting of five labels paired with Lazio cheese, Amatrice salami and an artisanal tarallo.
Lazio, Italy
Est. 1967 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
5
