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Frascati - Photo (c)
jessi
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Frascati wine
The production territory of the Frascati consists not only of the town of
Frascati, from which derives its name, but also of the surroundings town of
Grottaferrata, Monte Porzio Catone, a part of the district of Rome and
Montecompatri. All these areas have identical geographical conditions and
production methods.
The Frascati’s vineyards are characterized by Malvasia di Candia and by
Trebbiano, even if recently there is a tendency to cultivate the vines’
types utilized in the past.
In the Frascati’s territory the vines are cultivated in rows or at tendone,
even if there is a tendency to traditional cultivations, i.e. cazenave and
gouyout, nearing the plants and diminishing the distance between rows. In
this way, the vineyards are thicker, with a greater number of plants and
characterized by a better quality.
The vinification of whites is more difficult than the red ones. Generally
this type of wine is not aged. New technologies and machines and the
stainless steel vats enabled to this wine to be free from those pathologies
which determined a change in its colour and the oxygenation during
transports. Its aging period and its transport has been gradually simplified
and now Frascati is exported all around the world.
There are a lot of Wine-makers which export their product. If the wine “Frascati”
suffers from globalization, locally however it is drunk at the “Fraschette”;
these are a sort of public houses where in the past the producer was
authorized to sell his product for a short period of time, until the branch
of the tree utilized as sign was dry.
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To these public houses you can bring
with you something to eat, such as small local doughnuts and the well-known
“Pupazza”, biscuits baked in form of a doll with three breasts, two for milk
and one for wine.
The “Frascati” is a white wine. It has an elegant and delicate taste and it
is great as lunchtime drinking.
In addition to the “Frascati” and the “Frascati Superiore” there is the “Cannellino”
wine. It is a dessert wine produced with the grapes of the Frascati’s
vineyards, but only of those cultivated in sunny, sloping places, exposed to
the South and characterized by volcanic soil, which is locally defined “terrinella”.
The vineyards correspondent to these characteristics are denominated by
local Wine-makers “pettorina”.
The grapes are picked in November when due to the particular climatic
conditions they are attacked by the Botrytis Cinerea, a grey mildew which
reduces the acidity while the withering of the batches reduces the sugar
content and therefore it can be defined a “noble” mildew.
This sweet white wine has full bodied fragrance, and like other Frascati
wines, is light and elegant and gives pleasure to the palate.
The name “Cannellino” originates from the easy how the wine flows out of the
“cannella”, i.e. the barrel’s pipe.
Courtesy of
www.stradadeivinideicastelliromani.com
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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