Rome's Bulk Wine Vendors

Another good reason to come to Italy is for the wine.

Whether or not the ancient inhabitants were first in the world to make it, Italy has been making excellent quality wine for centuries. Its volcanic soil, combined with regional mountainous slopes or rolling hills and surprising abundance of daily sunlight, work wonders for the growing grape vines.

One of the wonderful things I learned while living in Rome is that the cheap wine here is like the average price wine in the United States. Early on, I started purchasing the various bottles of red wine that cost 1 Euro.  Typically, they were wines from the region closest to Rome. And they were just alright. It reminded me of the cheap box-wine back in the States.  Drinkable to the unknowing palate. The experienced wine taster, however, pushes themselves through it.

After realizing that all the 1 Euro options were pretty much unappealing to me, for example, too sharp, too bright, whatever the reason, I moved up to the 2 Euro bottles. The cheapest Italian wine was all too similar to buying those $3 or $4 bottles at the bottom of the shelves. Not good.

2 Euro wine is slightly better than 1 Euro wine, but not good enough for me. It still seemed like the quality was that of a $6 to $8 bottle. Some bordered on decent but most didn't.

On to the 3 Euro bottles. Now that took a leap in quality! Much better.  Much more palatable to the highly discerning tongue. Smoother, more flavor, and thankfully, more options! Many of the 3 Euro bottles taste closer to a $10 bottle purchased in the States.  Most times while I lived in the U.S., I would try to find a bottle between $9-$12 for any red wine whether it be from Spain, Argentina, the U.S., Italy, etc. I'd happily drink better wines but the budget usually wins over my desires.

And that's where Italy has an outstanding solution to my budget friendly/good quality wine desires.

The answer: SFUSO.
In English, you would call that draft wine.

My sfuso vendor at Testaccio's covered market.

After visiting this vendor once a week for the last, say 12 weeks in a row, this man's coworker who I assume is his wife finally said to me in Italian, "I see you all the time.  Why are you here? To study?"

"No, signora.  La mia moglie studia storia del arte. Sono una casalingo."

And then she breaks out in laughter. Why? Because I said, "No, ma'am. My wife studies art history. I am a house wife." And it's even more funny to Italians because ending the word, casalinga, with an -o- suggests that I am a male house wife. And that word doesn't exist in the Italian dictionary. So it's funny to them. Everyone loves a good play on words, right?

The laughter tells me we are now friends, and hopefully she will continue to remember me in the future as a good customer.  Because as you continue to get to know your vendors, randomly, you start getting more product for the usual amount spent. It pays to be friendly.

For 3.20 Euro, I get a 1.5 Liter plastic bottle filled with rather good Montepulciano red wine. Many restaurants you go to in Italy offer this same type of good enough but still inexpensive "house wine", vino rosso della casa.

The best news is that the vendors offer a number of different varietals. A couple reds, a couple whites, some dry, some sweet, some cheaper than others. Sfuso vendors typically are located at the major outdoor Italian Markets. I have occasionally found the set-up in random neighborhood supermarkets as well. You just have to look for them.

And make sure to ask what kinds they have. Samples are quite common.  After all, its not like they have to open a bottle for you!

As for the bottles in the Italian supermarkets, I'd say the average wine consumer will be quite pleased with any bottle 4 Euro and higher.  Almost every one I have tried reminds me of the quality of a $12-$15 bottle.