After more than two years, one of the most awaited enogastronomical events of the Italy’s capital is back: Beviamoci Sud a Roma, the event dedicated to the great wines of Southern Italy, on stage on May 14 and 15 at Hotel Villa Pamphili, in Rome.
Organized by the agency Riserva Grande, in collaboration with Andrea Petrini, blogger of Percorsi di Vino, and the journalist Luciano Pignataro, Beviamoci Sud a Roma aims to promote only representative companies of the various wine areas of the South, while maintaining a high standard of quality.
A unique occasion for wine lovers and professionals to taste all the excellent wines of a territory which since ancient times has been the cradle of great wines with an unmistakable personality, full of history, culture and territorial characteristics unique in the world.
Southern Italy is in fact an area rich in native grapes, different terroirs, climates and distinct wine traditions, which has a natural predilection for the cultivation of autochthonous grapes, such as Nero d’Avola, Gaglioppo, Maglioppo, Cesanese, Greco Bianco, Primitivo, Aglianico, Nerello Mascalese, Cannonau, Malvasia Puntinata, Susumaniello, Bombino, Carricante, Fiano, Falanghina, just to mention some of them.
These territories are to be considered as “felix” for viticulture, even though with proper differences, since ancient times, thanks to the extreme vocation of soils, pedoclimate and geographical position. When we talk about wines from these lands we also consider nectars coming from volcanic soils, rich in phosphor, magnesium and potassium, from which derive mineral products, endowed with unique freshness, complexity and sapidity.
Geographical areas on whose coasts the Phoenicians and the Greeks landed starting from the XII century B.C., bringing with them the most precious vines, which are today a great part of the ampelographic heritage of the South. Places that, later on, first Etruscans and then Romans made famous because they were associated to the great wines of that time, present on all the tables of the nobility and made status symbols ante litteram: just think about Falernum, Caecubum, Taburnum wines, just to mention some of them, praised and told also by Pliny the Elder and Virgil. Later on, this patrimony has been enriched by the grapes introduced thanks to the following dominations during the course of centuries: think about the grapes arrived from France and Spain, together with Angevins, Aragoneses and Bourbons.
In addition to this, the historical importance of southern wines has been further enriched thanks to a discovery made less than two years ago which, in part, rewrites the history of viticulture of the whole western Mediterranean, made by researchers of the University of Cagliari. At the site of Sa Osa (OR), seeds of vitis vinifera (belonging to the Vernaccia and Malvasia families) were found, dating back to about 3000 years ago, demonstrating how viticulture in Sardinia was an autochthonous phenomenon and not imported by Phoenicians and Greeks.
Beviamoci Sud in Rome therefore aims to spread and highlight the exceptional enoic, historical and cultural value of these territories, through tastings and seminars aimed at evaluating the different territorial declinations of the South. Great importance will be given to seminars which will have the goal of deepening, by means of horizontal or vertical tastings, the main characteristics of the many terroirs and of their selected grapes.