What the Hell Ever Happened to Frascati?

I’m no hipster. Literally ask anyone who’s ever met me. By way of exhibit A, I just bought a suede bomber jacket. So my bona fides secure, please know that I’m not trying to resurrect Frascati in the same way that intolerable little shit at the craft brewery is using a Motorola StarTac. I just don’t understand where this once-upon-a-time staple of Italian wine lists has gone.Let’s back track a bit. Frascati is the white wine of Rome. Grown some 25km outside the city it’s a wine that has more history than almost any other. As in mentioned in Horace history: “Here is the Albanum (Frascati) wine, Mecenas, but if you prefer the Falernum, we have both”. (See this insanely detailed site on the the wine here for much more such details). Back in the day – I mean like Augustus-era – it was far preferable to the wines of Northern Italy or Southern France which frequently had to be treated with varying degrees of poison in order to travel. And it’s legacy was intact well into the 1980’s as a dependable bottle that you didn’t need to be Pope Innocent the 10th in order to afford. It was always a blend, with at least 70% having to be some version of the Malvasia grape and 30% or grapes that you’ve never heard of (including the awesomely named Bombino Bianco) all grown in volcanic soil. When made properly it channels notes of citrus, maybe a little crisp apple, maybe some almond but it always had that good level of acidity that makes it pair well with food, but it’s an approachable if occasionally innouccous sipper as well. 

The Italian white, grown near Rome used to be a staple on wine lists—now it seems to be in some sort of oenological witness protection program.