Lazio

Lazio is the region around Rome, and its wine country is one of Italy's most underrated day trips — close enough to the capital that you can taste in the morning and be back for dinner. This is old ground: the Etruscans and Romans made wine in these volcanic hills two thousand years ago, and the crater lakes and dark tufa soils south and north of the city still shape the wines today.

Lazio is white-wine country first — around 70% of what it makes — built on the Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes of the Castelli Romani, the ring of hill towns southeast of Rome. Frascati is the name everyone knows, a crisp, easy white poured all over the city; it holds two of the region's three DOCGs (Frascati Superiore and the sweet Cannellino di Frascati). North toward Lake Bolsena you'll find the curiously named Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone. The region's one great red is Cesanese — an indigenous grape behind Cesanese del Piglio, Lazio's first DOCG — grown in the hills east of Rome.

The Castelli Romani towns — Frascati, Grottaferrata, Marino, Castel Gandolfo above its lake — are the natural base, most within 45 minutes of central Rome by car or regional train, and many tastings come with a countryside lunch. Spring and early autumn are ideal, and the local wine festivals cluster around the September–October harvest. Use the guides below to plan which cellars to visit and how to fold a half-day of Lazio wine into a Rome trip.