FROM MASS WINE TO TOP QUALITY: LAZIO REGION'S NEW SUCCESS. OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS EARNINGS HAVE INCREASED AND REGION'S LABELS NOW ON RESTAURANT WINE LISTS

Lazio’s winemakers are satisfied with the results 15 years after the decision was made to stop mass wine production and to start focusing on higher quality wines. At the recent "Vinoforum" conference organized together with Confcommercio, Arsial President Giulio Somma and the 27 wine producers that make up Vigne del Lazio, commented on the current situation.
"Though Lazio's wines still have a "white" image, two important medals were awarded to a Cesanese from Piglio and a Moscato from Terracina in the latest wine competition by Vinitaly (along with many young wine producers who were in the selection), and earnings are increasing in restaurants and wine bars in the capital.
As well, according to the Arsial (Regional Agency for Agricultural Development) director, with its 4,000 restaurants, Rome has a global wine market, with national and international labels, which in a certain sense makes the city a Vinitaly exposition everyday. With new projects already begun, the Lazio region and Arsial are now trying to give “an identity to the territory where significant signs of vitality have been registered”.
“A job that won’t be easy, that of the public administration and the Vigne del Lazio association, of imposing choices based on quality; but the results can be seen, and Frascati today has nothing to do with its folkloristic image of 40 years ago”, noted president, Antonio Santarelli. Wine bar owners concurred, according to whom, “a politic of less celebration and more market has caused earnings to increase over the past 5 years: producers, however, should limit the number of labels and concentrate on the top wines of each winery so as not to disorient consumers”.
President of Lazio Confcommercio, Cesare Pambianchi, is convinced that the world of guided wine tasting must be “cultivated”, and suggested that “accompanying the extraordinary increase in tourism to Rome with a large promotional campaign for wines from Lazio in the city, which is a much looked at window front, as well as at Rome’s airports: it must be made known that along with the good cuisine, one also drinks well here”.