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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. 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.
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