For Antonio Santarelli Casale del Giglio was the family estate, where as a child he spent weekends and tried the first rides with its motorbike. But, when he was twenty–five and he began to work on the farm with his father Dino, understood how those reclaimed land of the Pontine Marshes are a virgin area on which to try all possible. The absence of a winemaking past became, in this way, a crucial stimulus to the maximum degree of freedom to innovate. He called at his side ampelographers and university researchers, and in 1985, with his father Dino, gave life to a project that planted on his land almost 60 different experimental grape varieties.
The patterns of vine cultivation to which this research are inspired are those practiced in Bordeaux, in Australia and in California, which are exposed to the influences of the territories of the Coast, exactly like the Pontine Marshes, which benefits of the influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
According to the philosophy of Casale del Giglio, the future development of Italian viticulture lies not only in the consolidation of picture of areas of great tradition, but also in obtaining, through appropriate viticultural and winemaking choices, a production of high quality, with the right value for money, in territories still poorly understood from the point of view of their wine–growing and wine–making potential.
A complex and risky adventure, never attempted in such a scientific way, of which the oenologist of the company Paolo Tiefenthaler has become an interpreter.
An adventure that pays for the bravery with the first important results on Syrah and Petit Verdot red grapes, and white grapes like Viognier, Chardonnay and Sauvignon, which give rise to different labels from a single grape variety or by blending, always at an interesting value for money.
Casale del Giglio was founded in 1967 by Dr. Berardino Santarelli, original of Amatrice, and is located in the Pontine Marshes resort in Le Ferriere locality, in the Municipality of Aprilia, in the province of Latina, about 50 kilometers south of Rome. This area is represented, compared to other areas of Lazio and other regions of Italy, a territory to be explored from the point of view of wine.
