A happy rebirth

Alta (Upper) Sabina is in the province of Rieti, not far from Rome, and is better known for its olive oil and natural beauty than its wines. In the small village of Rocca Sinibaldi is a magnificent castle that dates back to the year 1000 and was transformed into an imposing fortress in the 1500s by Cardinal Alessandro Cesarini. After the Second World War, the castle was bought by Caresse Crosby, an enterprising American writer and publisher who, among other things, patented the first modern bra. She proceeded to transform the castle into an artists’ colony and kept it until her death in 1970.

In 1975, the British agronomist Colin Fraiser had the courage and foresight to invest in this territory which sits at an altitude of 600m above sea level is thus subject to sharp temperature variations while the soil drains naturally thanks to the abundant gravel present. He proceeded to create a beautiful and very steep vineyard, an experience that gave him great satisfaction and about which he wrote in a book entitled Working with Bacchus.

Kika Santaroni, a native of Oltrepò and wife of a Roman attorney, fell in love with the project and used her determination and strong personality to give the estate a second life, with the name ‘Poggio Fenice’ or Hill of the Phoenix. She acquired the vineyard in 1992 and dedicated herself to it heart and soul, replanting and restoring the vineyards and bringing in a young but already expert enologist, Chiara di Lullo, to run the winery

Today they produce two Lazio IGT wines, a 100% Sauvignon white wine, Alaia, and a red called Nibbio.

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