What about Cecubo, the wine of the old Romans? And how the Monti Cecubi winery was born?
The Cecubo is one of the wines that you’ll taste during your ancient Roman wine tour experience.
So let’s learn something about it!
The historian Strabone said it was “excellent and substantial”.
The Greek physician Galeno decribed it as “pleasant, of good tone, of strong food substance, excellent for the intelligence and for the stomach.”
The Cecubo was considered one of the most delicious wines in the Roman age. It was in fact reserved for the last toast in the banquets.
The Cecubo represents the identity of a country, around Sperlonga.
The Emperor Tiberius himself (and his mother Livia) owned vineyards near their holiday’s villa. And they used to grow up the grapes of that so well-known Roman wine.
We believe that “Cecubo” derives from caecus (blind), joined to bibere (to drink) and that these words were fused together to name “the wine of the blind one”, Appio Claudio Cieco (i.e Blind), who was the builder of the Via Appia, through the hills of the Monti Cecubi.
Right on those hills, facing the sea near Sperlonga, the Monti Cecubi winery was born, managed by the Schettino’s. They bought an ancient farm at the end of the ’90s and were determined to take the oenology back in those lands .
The job started from a small vineyard next to the farm. The oenologist could identify some local varieties like the Abbuoto, and planted some more common vinegrapes like the Vermentino, the Fiano, the Falanghina, the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Aglianico.
Monti Cecubi vineyards covers now around 100 hectares among Itri, Fondi and Sperlonga.
The soil composition, the exposure, the influence of the sea, the strong temperature variation between day and night, allows Monti Cecubi to produce intense, fresh and longlasting wines, as pure expression of this country.
The recipe mixes the ancient tradition with modern technology, a limited production and organic farming.
So let’s make the experience: come discover Cecubo, the Roman wine!
