It is the most common black grape variety in the Lazio region and also in Tuscany. The origin of the name is somewhat unclear: it could derive from Cesano (the town near Rome, from where the vine would come), from Cesena (from which, according to tradition, a Benedictine monk would have brought the first cuttings), or might even go back to the first Roman colonies (the area of Affile was indeed hilly and covered with forests and the vine was often planted in newly deforested area, the caesae, or "places of cut trees"). The most suited areas are in the province of Frosinone, between the towns of Piglio, Affile and Olevano Romano, but it is widespread in Castelli Romani and Cerveteri. There are two varieties: the Cesanese Comune vine and the Cesanese di Affile vine, recognized for the first time in 1888. The first written record about this wine dates back to 1600, as Rutilius Scotti, writer of the place, described its goodness, but also its healing properties. The importance of this grape variety for this area is also witnessed by the coat of arms of the Affile municipality (a black grape vine shoot with an asp coiled around it), although the elevated position of the vineyards, the difficulties of cultivation and vinification and the fragmentation of its property did not allow a great development in the area. The plant has small, pentagonal, three-lobed or five-lobed leaves, and medium-size, cylindrical-conical and compact on average bunches, with medium-small, spherical, thick-skinned and covered in bloom grapes.
