he Pontine Marshes represent a unique case in the field of Italian wine production. The district possesses of extremely fertile terrains but until the early years of the current century they were entirely useless from an agricultural standpoint. A combination of political will and the commitment of adequate means in terms of labor, equipment and financing permitted cultivation of what had been a swampy waste for thousands of years.The introduction of viticulture was conditioned by factors outside the field. The objective was to produce a great deal, fairly well and immediately. For that reason, the "tendone" system of training the vines was adopted, although the zone is entirely flat, and reliable varieties like Trebbiano, Sangiovese and Merlot were planted. The contraction of domestic consumption, the reduction in exports to markets where heavy demand had produced a boom in the seventies, and, above all, the growing insistence upon wines of higher levels of quality, have prompted producers in the area to rethink completely the nature of their output and to reoriente the working methods in use on their estates.
In recent years, many vineyards have been dug up. In others, the "tendone" system has been replaced by systems of planting vines in rows with a greater density of rootstocks per hectare. On almost all of the estates, significant portions of the vineyards have been set aside for experiments with different techniques of cultivation, a process that is being overseen by university research institutions. Throughout the entire zone, there is a commitment to innovation, the effects of which can be concretely assessed by tasting the wines of the most recent vintages.
