Mario Macciocca Monocromo #2 Cesanese 2022

Mario Macciocca is a natural wine producer working four hectares of biodynamic vineyards in the Piglio area of Frosinone, on the slopes of Monte Scalambra along the Simbruini mountain chain in Lazio. His personal story is one of multiple careers converging on an unlikely destination: professional footballer at national level in Italy, student of physics who left without graduating, bartender at the historic La Palma club in Rome. Around 2000, he returned to his family's inherited land and began making wine.

The four hectares divide into approximately three hectares of Cesanese and one hectare of Passerina and Malvasia Puntinata. The parcels known as Pila Rocca and Carmine sit at 380 to 400 metres altitude on red volcanic clay and limestone-marl soils, with south and southwest exposures naturally sheltered from the coldest winds. Farming is biodynamic in practice throughout — no herbicides, no synthetic fertilisers, no pesticides. Only copper and sulphur are applied when necessary for disease prevention.

The Monocromo range takes its name from the idea of a single, unadorned colour: a single grape, a single terroir, a single expression without oak or sulfur to colour the result. Each wine in the range carries a number rather than a name. Monocromo #2 is the red wine — the fullest and most tannic expression of Cesanese in the entry-level range, fermented on skins for 10 days before aging in stainless steel. Monocromo #1 is the white, from Passerina and Malvasia; Monocromo #3 is the rosé from Cesanese with brief maceration. Beyond the Monocromo range, Mario makes more ambitious, single-parcel Cesanese wines aged in large barrel, with the Civitella cuvée representing his most complex work.

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The Cesanese appellations sit in the foothills of the Simbruini and Ernici mountains in the province of Frosinone, in the southeastern corner of Lazio, roughly 70 kilometres from Rome. The zone is home to three distinct appellations built around the Cesanese grape: the Cesanese del Piglio DOCG, the most prestigious, along with Cesanese di Olevano Romano DOC and Cesanese di Affile DOC. The total area under vine across all three designations is modest — around 250 to 300 hectares in the Piglio zone alone — reflecting the relative obscurity of these wines outside central Italy and the small scale of the producers working within them.

The terrain is dramatic and strongly shaped by ancient volcanic activity. Vineyards in and around Piglio sit on hillsides of red volcanic clay at elevations typically ranging from 300 to 500 metres, protected on the northern and eastern sides by the Simbruini peaks, which reach over 2,000 metres. This creates a sheltered microclimate with warm, sun-exposed growing conditions during the day and significant temperature drops at night, which preserve Cesanese's high natural acidity while allowing full phenolic ripeness. The red clay soils are rich in iron and volcanic minerals, giving the wines their characteristic earthy, mineral backbone alongside the variety's floral and spiced aromatics.

Cesanese has been cultivated in this area since at least the Roman period and appears in historical records as one of the favoured wines of the papal court. The variety fell into relative neglect through the twentieth century as cooperatives prioritised high volumes of blended wine. Since the early 2000s, a small group of producers committed to biodynamic farming and minimal intervention — including Mario Macciocca, La Visciola, Carlo Noro, and a handful of others — has led a revival that is steadily bringing Cesanese del Piglio to broader international attention. These producers are demonstrating what the grape can do from low yields, old vines, and clean, unsulphured winemaking.