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Classic wine on the Aventine!

View of the Colosseum from the Aventine in Rome
View of the Colosseum from the Aventine in Rome (photos: Aart Heering)

uva pantastic the historian Pliny the Younger in the first century AD. ch. the white grapes that the farmers in the vicinity of Rome liked next to their bread (panic) ate.

Bellone

The same grape variety, now known – depending on the region – as Bellone or Cacchione, was used in classical antiquity to make a wine that was also appreciated by the wealthy. In the area around Rome, especially around Latina and Anzio, this still happens. And recently, the Bellone is also back in Rome itself, in the very oldest part of the city, atop the Palatine Hill.

The young plantings were presented last week as part of Parco Green, a plan to convert the 40-hectare Archaeological Park of the Colosseum – which includes the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, the Colosseum and the Domus Aurea of ​​Nero – environmentally friendly.

View with grapes, olive tree, cypress and palm

150 kinds of plants

In part it already is: if you walk up the Palatine Hill from the entrance of Via San Gregorio, behind the Colosseum, you pass among the ruins through ancient cypresses, palms, pines and lush olive trees. Before you know it, you'll find yourself in a rural area where you can't even hear the busy traffic. And the air is also cleaner thanks to a smog-resistant wall of 150 different species plant.

Caper plant on the Roman wall

The urban landscape park, which already produces small quantities of olive oil and honey, has now been completed by also restoring viticulture. On the Palatine Hill, one of the 7 on which Rome was built, legend has it that the first mythical Rome originated – in fact remains of stilt houses dating from the 9th or 10th century BC have been found. The emperors had their residence here in the first centuries of our era, but Pliny wrote that part of the hill was already used for winegrowing.

Young fig tree for the grapes

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the exodus of the city of Rome, the Aventine Hill was abandoned until, in the first half of the 16th century, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, later Pope Paul III, had the wasteland cultivated as a property developer to make it a pleasure garden. to make. A century later, the noble Barberini family established another vineyard, which had to make way for archaeological excavations in the 19th century. It is in that Vigna Barberini (follow the signs) where the most classic autochthonous grape, the Bellone, is now again planted.

The new winery

The modest new winery is located on a field leveled in antiquity with a beautiful view of the Colosseum, next to the remains of the temple of the crazy emperor Heliogabalus (to whom Louis Couperus wrote his exuberant novel The mountain of light devoted). The rows of vines are sheltered by an ancient Roman wall covered with caper plants, behind which is the 17th century church of San Bonaventura and an adjacent Franciscan monastery.

Remains of the Temple of Heliogabalus

On the other side is another church – we are in Rome after all – that of San Sebastiano. As was customary in ancient times, the grape plantation alternates with that of figs, pomegranates and olives providing welcome shade. culture promiscua, as it is so beautifully called in Italian technical terms.

Tasting

In short, an idyllic location for an outdoor tasting, which concluded the presentation. The very young Aventine vines won't be in production until next year, so we had to make do with other Bellones from the winemaker who planted them in collaboration with the Parco.

The tasting

The Cincinnato cooperative from Cori, an ancient town in the Latina province at the foot of the Monti Lepini, has a preference for names from classical antiquity. To start with his own name: Cincinnatus was the dictator who in the fifth century BC. The young Rome protected against neighboring tribes.

The Director of Cincinnato with the General's Portrait

Their most common Bellone is called Castore, or Castor, one of the two Argonauts. (A red wine, made from the local grape Nero Buono, was named after his brother Pollux: Polluce.)

A tasty Bellone spumante is called Korì, the ancient name for Cori. The full Quinto is named after another dictator, Quintus Fabius Maximus, who saved Rome after the terrible defeat by Hannibal in 217 BC. He was known as connector, the talmer, because he waited endlessly to go into battle.

The full Quinto

The wine with his name is also not in a hurry, but is aged in steel for a year before bottling. Finally, Enyo is a powerful, extra-long-aged wine, named after the Greek goddess of war and renamed Bellona by the Romans. Who else?

For more information: cincinnato.it

In Italian, English and (for now) Russian. And anyone who also wants to put the Bellone to the test, can contact the importer of artisanal wines Martijn Verkerk in Driebergen in the Netherlands: www.smaragdwijnenathome.nl.    

Written by Aart Heering

Historian who has lived in Italy for more than 30 years, 20 of which as a journalist and 12 as a press and political officer at the Dutch embassy in Rome. Has been working as a journalist again since May 2022. Active member of the Gruppo del Gusto, the gourmet group of the foreign press association in Rome.

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