Whether you are someone who enjoys wine and would like to know more about Italian excellence, or are a serious collector of vintages, a wine tasting or food pairing at Rimessa Roscioli is a fascinating journey into Italian wine traditions and talents, matched with carefully sourced ingredients.
Plus, everything is offered in a range of languages, with English as standard, and French, Italian or Spanish group tastings available by request.
This lively wine bar is also great for a quick drink or a high quality dinner with friends – it’s up to you how didactic an affair you make it.
The location of Rimessa Roscioli couldn’t be better: just a short walk from Campo de’ Fiori and near the major city artery that runs along the river, the Lungotevere, it’s situated in a peaceful, cobbled side-street with large glass windows that just invite you in.
The space is loosely divided into three areas: a zone reserved for groups doing wine tastings, an informal dining area, plus a handful of stools near a bar for casual drinkers.
Its worth mentioning that Rimessa has over 400 labels in its impressive cellars and offers 70 types of wine by the glass due to a patented extraction system, which can siphon off even the rarest wine without ruining the rest of the bottle. This makes for a fun and high quality experience – there’s none of that shuffling through half opened bottles with corks wedged in.
A word about the Roscioli name: if you’ve spent any time in Rome eating and drinking, you may have come across this family empire comprising high quality delis, a bakery and coffee bar. Roscioli has become synonymous with the farm-to-table sourcing of exquisite ingredients and the original Roscioli salumeria, located on via dei Giubbonari not far away from Rimessa Roscioli, represents a cult dining experience.
Rimessa Roscioli has been able to licence this name as it acquires the ingredients for all its food from the upmarket deli (while Rimessa means store or shed) and sources additional wines on the side. It’s not strictly run by the family, but it is much more than a franchise.
I tried a variation on Rimessa Roscioli’s extremely popular wine tasting dinner formula, which starts at €59.00 per person, although they offer many other options, ranging from olive oil tastings to master degustations for experienced connoisseurs including French and Italian wines. More about the other choices later, on with the good stuff!
Our dinner started with a welcome glass of Prosecco Credamora by Malibran (Veneto). It proved a perfect match with a tris of buffalo cheese tastings: buffalo ricotta with red onion chutney, buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes, and burrata from Corato with capuliato, a Sicilian condiment made from sun-dried tomatoes.
This proved a tasty, quality start to proceedings, and was accompanied with explanations and facts about the producers by our host.
We next moved on to a very original tasting tris of fresh pesto from Pra, smoked mackerel and a goats’ cheese produced by ‘happy goats’, sourced with love and care (like all of the Roscioli ingredients) this time from a farm in Montefalco.
This dish was paired with a Roero Arneis 2017 by Palladino (Piemonte), one of my favourite wines and a perfect compliment to the light, sharp flavours.
Next, it was time to move onto a salumi selection, something for which Roscioli is deservedly famous. These included a sliver of prosciutto, a portion of capocollo of black pork from Monti Nebrodi, and a very tasty slice of salami, also from Monti Nebrodi. This was paired with a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2014, produced by Contucci (Toscana). The wine was perfect with these dark and salty notes.
Our tasting continued with an exceptional plate of pasta, combining creamy grated Parmesan with slivers of black truffle. This was creamy and aromatic, and paired perfectly with a local wine, the excellent Cesanese di Olevano Romano Superiore 2016, by Giacobbe (Lazio).
Next up, we continued the local theme with a veal meatball combined with a simple tomato sauce and shavings of pecorino. These rich notes combined perfectly to provide a real tang, contrasting with the subtle flavours of the meat.
We then moved onto a cheese-tasting platter, enjoying some pieces of Parmigiano reggiano made from red cows’ milk and aged 36 months. This was sweet, fragrant and just the right amount of salty. Paired with an incomparable Barolo Parafada 2014 by Palladino (Piemonte), it was a simply exceptional way to round out the meal.
There was still just about room for dessert so we tried the house tiramisu from the menu to round off the evening. This was satisfyingly sloppy, just like good, homemade tiramisu. Once again, the quality of the ingredients was faultless.
All in all, the Rimessa Roscioli experience was a fantastic one, and a real learning experience for me, despite having spent many years in Rome. I could see that it would also be the perfect entry point for someone visiting Italy for the first time.
Rimessa Roscioli manages the tricky task of presenting English-language wine tasting experiences in Rome which maintain a locals-only charm, delving deep into Italian food and wine traditions while prioritising excellence, competence and passion. A must for wine lovers visiting the capital.
Rimessa Roscioli have constructed an empire which also includes cooking classes, wine tours, day trips into the country and and even Roscioli Rome tours to visit all of the business’s locations across the city. Full details are on the website, so go and explore that and I’ll see you at the bar!
Highly recommended.
Rimessa Roscioli |Via del Conservatorio, 58 | Roma RM | Tel +39 06 6880 3914
Testaccina was a guest of Rimessa Roscioli
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Just one word, ‘fantastic photographs’, China
Thanks so much China!
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