Casale del Giglio
As a child and young teenager the fields and lanes of the family estate, Casale del Giglio, were nothing more to Antonio Santarelli than a place where he could spend carefree weekends and indulge his budding passion for motorbike riding; but all that changed when he joined his father Dino in the family business.
By then, a shrewd twenty-five year old, he knew instinctively that their unconventional land in the Agro Pontino valley, some 50 kms south of Rome, offered a unique opportunity to attempt something no-one had ever attempted before.
Lazio is the region located on central Italy’s west coast, positioned as the ‘knee’ of Italy’s ‘boot’. This is where you’ll find Rome, and also where you’ll find the wines from Casale del Giglio.
Casale del Giglio has become an icon of Central Italian wines and a must-have in all homes and restaurants of Italy’s Capital city Rome. To understand its success in Italy and abroad, it helps to know where it all began: Casale del Giglio, was founded in 1967 by the Santarelli family Roman wine merchants.
Its position between the sea and the hills, a special microclimate and historical indigenous roots make this unconventional land in the Agro Pontino valley, some 50 kms south of Rome in the southern part the Lazio region, the area that offered a unique opportunity with great potential that no one have ever attempted before.
We invested heavily in viticultural research, and with the close and long term collaboration of our oenologist, Paolo Tiefenthaler we succeeded in totally revolutionizing the Agro Pontino valley’s approach to wine making.
The models of viticulture cultivation which inspired these researches are those traditionally practiced in Bordeaux, Australia and in California all territories exposed to the influence of the coast exactly like the Agro Pontino, which benefits of the influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The current production of the Casale del Giglio company offers a range of 21 products (white, rosé and red, a late harvest, three grappas and an extra virgin olive oil) which perfectly position the company in a cluster of wines that today we can rightly aspire to coin Super Lazio wines.
In tandem with our efforts to identify and select the Italian and international grape varieties best suited to our local microclimate, we have never ceased to focus on those vines native to Lazio which have been rediscovered in neighbouring districts. Such varieties include the Biancolella of Ponza, the Bellone of Anzio and most recently the production development of Pecorino and Cesanese.
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