The name means thirst, and the project behind it is equal parts agricultural rescue mission and cultural declaration. Sete Vini Naturali was born in 2013 when two childhood friends from the hills of Lazio decided that their region's ancient vines -- abandoned, overgrown, and all but forgotten -- deserved someone to fight for them.
Backstory
Sete Vini Naturali founders Emiliano Giorgi and Arcangelo Galuppi grew up together near Priverno in the Monti Lepini foothills south of Rome. Their winemaking trajectory was seeded by beer: many evenings at the local pub, talking about flavor and fermentation, gradually tilting toward wine. The decisive turn came when Emiliano spent two consecutive harvests, in 2010 and 2011, working with natural wine pioneer Gianmarco Antonuzi at Le Coste di Gradoli in northern Lazio. He returned with a clear vision, and together with Arcangelo began recovering abandoned vineyards in the Amaseno river valley. A third partner, Martina D'Alessio, joined the project and now contributes to both viticulture and the winery's expanding social programming.
The Region
The Amaseno valley runs through the Monti Lepini range in the province of Latina, roughly halfway between Rome and Naples. It is one of the least-known wine territories in central Italy, a patchwork of smallholder farms, orchards, and buffalo pastures that supply the mozzarella industry. The area was once dense with vineyards tended by farming families for daily consumption, but postwar rural exodus left most of those plots untended. Sete treats the recovery of this landscape as an act, in their words, of "agricultural resistance and recycling."
Vineyards and Farming
Sete farms 4.5 hectares spread across twelve individual plots, with vines ranging from fifty to over one hundred years old. Each plot was recovered from abandonment by hand, and each is cultivated without synthetic chemicals or fertilizers. The founders maintain an active dialogue with elder local winemakers to recover traditional viticultural knowledge and identify heritage varieties that official registries had stopped tracking. Farming is entirely manual.
Winemaking
Every decision in the cellar reflects the same anti-interventionist ethic that governs the vineyard. Wild fermentations begin without inoculation. No sulfites are added at any stage. There is no fining, no filtration, no correction. Macerations are used extensively, particularly for the estate's orange and red wines. The team vinifies each plot separately to preserve the distinct character of every old-vine parcel, and produces wines in tiny quantities that sell out quickly through their network of natural wine importers.
The Wines
The Sete lineup includes the Tropicale orange wine from Malvasia, the Flora, the Baffo red from Cesanese and Nero Buono, and a sparkling Bolle e Fiori, among others. Other bottlings include the Boombox Malvasia orange, the Freaky rosato, the Rosafante and Bomba pet-nats, and a Vino Rosso. Grape varieties throughout the range read like a glossary of forgotten Lazio natives: Ottonese, Bonamico, Malvasia Puntinata, Moscato Bianco, and Cesanese sit alongside others that have no official denomination. New wines appear each vintage as additional plots are recovered and vinified for the first time.
