Chalk Talk: Fontana Candida Makes A Swell Frascati

The baseline: Frascati Superiore

I admit I was skeptical when Lars Leicht, director of communications at Banfi Wine, contacted to say he was bringing a winemaker Mauro Merz of Fontana Candida into town. He said he had “some very exciting newly released Frascatis to show” at a tasting he had planned at Steel.  I’ve always considered wines from Frascati, a white wine region on the outskirts of Rome, as  bland (when I was not drinking Pinot Grigio that is).

I visited the source over a decade ago to see if they tasted better before they were shipped. My companion and I wandered down an alleyway off one of the streets in the quaint town of Frascati and into an Osteria with a wooden door so heavy you could give yourself a hernia trying to open it. Inside, we settled for a plate of antipasti and Frascati. We knew the wine was local because it was poured from a huge barrel that was one of many set along one wall. It was served in a simple jug, from which we poured it into tumblers. This vineous enigma was dispensed without such fluffery as a name or a vintage. It was just made locally, probably by a co-op, and was what the clientele expected. I had many glorious Italian wines on that trip, but Frascati was not one of them. I didn’t dislike it, it was just totally bland.

Jump for my conversion to a believer.

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