Latium is the region of Rome. It is, also, the source of so much of the wonderful produce, meat, and especially wine that flows into the Eternal City to sustain Romans and visitors alike. Latium is unquestionably one of the most important wine regions in Italy, both in sheer volume as well as quality. And what may come as a surprise to many is that ninety percent of Latium's wines are white, including the region's best known wine - Frascati.

Frascati is Latium's most famous wine, and so pervasive is its presence in Rome that the name Frascati has become synonymous with white wine and all that is Roman. Frascati does indeed produce the finest dry white wine from the hills around Rome, which are known alternately as Castelli Albani, Castelli Romani, and Colli Romani. The name notwithstanding, the Alban Hills offer a sun-drenched climate and a mineral rich volcanic soil, conditions that have proven ideal for the cultivation of Malvasia, Trebbiano, and a hand full of other local white wine varieties that constitute Frascati.

Today, Frascati is most often made light, clean, and very dry. However, Frascati can still legally be made semi-sweet (amabile) or sweet (cannellino), but such versions are increasingly rare. The same can be said for the other notable white wines of the Alban Hills, including Marino and Colli Albani.

In addition to Frascati and its siblings Marino and Colli Albani, Latium is home to Est! Est!! Est!!! and Orvieto, as a part of the Orvieto DOC spills into Latium from neighboring Umbria. Furthermore, a growing number of select high quality red wines spring from the rural hills of ancient Lazio. Most of the region's quality red wines are bottled in small quantities under proprietary names. Two traditional grapes, Aleatico and Cesanese are the most widely cultivated red varieties throughout Latium, with Cesanese generally producing the more interesting dry red wine of the region. Increasingly, Cabernet Sauvignon is figuring in the quality quotient as well.