Just a few years ago Alessandro Cugini was a cadet at the Italian Air Force Academy and had a wonderful future in front of him… Then, one day, the call of the land became irresistible, so Alessandro gave up the Air Force and decided his future would be at his father’s wine farm. Actually Tonino, his father, has been working in the land for a lifetime, with love and passion.

Now Alessandro is a member of the 7^th generation of the Cugini family, which since 1730 has been growing grapes and producing great wines. “We are the oldest vine-dresser family in this area”, Tonino says, and with pride shows us the labels on the bottles, where you can see pictures of their ancestors. The experience he gained through centuries from ancient generations is still there, in his able hands and sharp eyes. As a matter of fact, we can call Tonino a “grape hunter” who, during his regular hunting, in years has collected dozens and dozens of almost completely extinct autochthonous varieties. He then top grafted them and today we hear the name of unknown grapes which seem to pop out of a tale book: Albarosa, Usignola, Chiapparone, Tor de’ Passeri, Bello Gentile, Cesanese Bianco, Albana dei Castelli Romani, Pecorino Uovo di Quaglia… And actually it is almost like a spell to hear him tell his stories: “I still miss two varieties: Garbagorda and Trisana. But sooner or later I’ll catch them!”

The family possesses three cultivated lands (in Valle Marciana, Colle dell’Asino and Cecchina) for a total of 26 hectares, where they grow grapes according to the “hanging” system, which helps maintain the vines well-aired. These are “experimental” vineyards, it means that technicians and experts keep them under scientific control.

Since 1996 the Cugini family makes wines under the “Strade Vigne del Sole” trademark, using 43 grape varieties (18 of them are red) out of the 72 they grow, and thus producing only IGT products, that is “Indicazione Geografica Tipica”, or “Typical Geographic Indication”, a less strict category than DOC. The only DOC that Cugini produce is “Vigna Preziosa” Frascati Superiore (their basic table white wine) and “Cannellino”, the typical light and sweet Castelli Romani’s wine, what Alessandro calls “banana juice” and when you taste it… well, it is really banana!! They also sell part of their grapes to other nearby farms, that use them to make Kosher wines.

Every year, 70% of the 120,000 bottles produced are sold to foreign markets: England, Japan, and above all United States. But Japan has the sole exclusive sales rights on two products: “Malvasia Rosso” and “Il vino dei nonni” (Grand-parents’ Wine), a blend of all the 18 red grapes, which is submitted to a double fermentation regime, “a very old method”, Tonino says.

Besides, in order to maintain the original flavour of each wine, they use only old barrique so that the wood taste is not going to influence the final product, but only favour micro-oxygenation.

In about 20 days they’re going to start the manual harvest (which is going on for two months), so Tonino and Alessandro invite us to come back to see the gorgeous ripe grapes, in their beautiful Autumn colours. But this is not the hardest period of the year: a very difficult moment remains the trimming, when cutting the plants you prepare them for the future seasons. “If you know how to use the scissors, you know how to make a good wine!”, and through Tonino’s words you can hear all the wisdom accumulated by peasant people, born on the land. In ancient times, there was the “tonnatore”, that is the expert who decided how and how much plants had to be cut, in order to favour the relationship among different varieties.