Four young Roman friends started making wine from their buddies’ biodynamic  vineyards, which take up 3 ha, in 2019.  Their stated goals mostly revolve around showcasing wine from the Castelli Romani region, which is a small lakeside area about 10 miles southeast of Rome where there are 14 ancient castles built as summer homes for nobles. It’s known for volcanic soils and tourism.  I CA RO’s wild lineup openly contradicts the DOC’s lax guidelines on yield and general preference for quantity and consistency over quality and personality. The four worked in wine bars in Rome before deciding that wine from here should be made in this way, and their experience in drinking good wine shows up in their bottles!

“Our grapes all come from a wonderful farm in a wild and uncontaminated land near Velletri. A one hectare vineyard from 1991 , trained in a tent and exposed to the north-east, which gives us Malvasia di Candia and Trebbiano . Another hectare trained in Guyot from which comes our biggest qty, the Nero Buono. We harvest by hand, in small 20kg boxes, seeking the perfect ripeness of the grapes every year. In the cellar, in Genzano , the fermentation is spontaneous, in 20-30hl fiberglass containers and in two 800lt amphorae. We do not filter, we do not clarify, we do not control the temperature. We practically do nothing that isn't strictly necessary. We only use a symbolic quantity of sulphites before bottling for which we respect the lunar cycles, as for decanting.”

Links to more info about I CA RO: