Wednesday 13 December 2006

try this! fragolino

This Wednesday Wine Blogging is hosted by Brenda at The Culinary Fool. Since it's the festive season she's presented us with a sparkling wine challenge, and it can't be champagne!

I have three favourite sparkling wines: they're all dessert wines and they're all Italian. Mostcato d'Asti (which I'm sure most people know about already), Brachetto d'Acqui (which I've bored you all about on numerous occasions) and Fragolino (a much maligned wine due to its New World ancestry).

I first tried Fragolino at the age of 19 in a cute little bar and creperia in Piazza di Sant'Eustachio in Rome. The creperis is no longer there, but I still fond memories of my first sweet sip and the cute bartender who slipped me his number when he wrote down the name of the wine.

Fragolino is a gorgeous Italian chilled, red dessert wine made from the Fragola grape (a hybrid commonly known as Uva Americana, Isabella Seksarda, Pierce and Raisin de Cassis). The interesting characteristic of the Fragola grape (Italian for strawberry) is that is has a distinctive strawberry aroma and this is imparted deeply into the wine. In fact Fragolino smells so entirely strawberry that I was convinced for some time that the wine was made out of strawberries rather than grapes.

Pisani Fragolino Rosso Vivo (Veneto, Italy) was a rich, ruby red, softly frizzante and certainly carried the distinctive perfume of strawberry. I also detected aromas of red fruits, cherries and even a little rose. The initial flavour was intensely strawberry with a mellow sweetness that ended in a slightly cloying cerise. In fact the aftertaste was quite syrupy and even borderline artificial. I became concerned that the wine had been modified to include artificial strawberry perfumes. However the texture of the wine was very nice: light with bubbles gently caressing the mouth and the elegant chill taking the edge off the sweetness.

I'd give Fragolino a 7-8 out of 10 whereas it's more sophisticated cousin, Brachetto d'Acqui, I'd give 9-10 out of 10.

Pisani Fragolino Rosso Vivo rates a little lower than your average Fragolino. It was good (I'd still recommend people to try it) but I've had better (dare I admit I love the very cheap Duchessa Lia).

For Brenda's rating scale, I wouldn't go as far as to say Pisani Fragolino is a dud, but it's neither a special sparkler nor a cheap and cheerful party sparkler (not at A$20 a bottle).

Please do give Fragolino a try. There's nothing better than a cold, red, dessert wine with the perfume of strawberries and the faint kiss of bubbles!

I thought I'd give you a bit of background on Fragolino, just in case people are interested in how the grape came into being.

In the late 1800s phylloxera infestations had destroyed many European vineyards and it was discovered that importing disease resistant North American vines and grafting them with European varieties led to a phylloxera resistant grape. In Italy and Austria the Vitis vinifera was crossed with the American Vitis labrusca, a grape which contained heady strawberry aromas. Thus the Uva Americana or Fragola was born.

Fragola's origins have caused quite a controversy. Given the European Union's tough protection of traditionally produced wines and grapes, Fragolino causes an issue because of its American origins. In order to protect the production of European grapes, wine produced from Fragola grapes was banned from sale right up until the mid 1990s. Most of the consumption was private and localised to Italy and Austria (where Fragolino is known as Uhudler).

This attitude towards such a delicious creation surprises me. It seems like preservation of heritage taken to the utmost extreme. This is particularly so if you consider that even though the grape came from the Americas, the semi-sparkling wine is most certainly a European invention. And surely Europe can continue inventing and developing? Surely it should be about continual evolution not just maintaining the status quo?

So with that potentially controversial opening of a can of wine worms, please check out Brenda's two part recap here and here to see what other sparklers tickled peoples' fancy.



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15 comments:

  1. I'd definitely try it with polenta next time!!

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  2. Such pretty colors for a drink!

    Sorry I'm using another account...blogger beta isn't allowing comments.

    -Jeff
    www.cforcooking.com

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  3. you do that fabio, that will taste "real" good.

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  4. maybe well done wagyu and bernaise?

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  5. i must admit i had a bernaise i enjoyed for the first time last weekend at rockpool melbourne

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  6. Anna, Thanks so much for participating in WBW. This was a fun post to read and it was great you shared your knowledge (and memories) of this wine and not just this one bottle!

    Hope to see you at future events!

    Happy Holidays!
    ~ B

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  7. Do you know where to get fragolino in Sydney?

    Happy new year!

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  8. hi julia, happy new year to you too! amato's and vintage cellars in leichhardt both stock it (both on norton street). i imagine most bottle shops with a good italian wine selection would stock it too.

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  9. who bottles or produces this fragolino rosso vivo pisani?

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  10. do you who is producing or bottling this fragolino fragolino rosso vivo pisani ?
    Nice label

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  11. I was recently in Ialy and had this fantstic wine called Calice Fragolino and now I cannot seem to find it anywhere......Can any one please help me!?

    Thanks & Happy Holidays

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  12. Hola buenas dias, me gustaría saber donde puedo comprar este vino en España.
    Me gustaria tenerlo en mi tienda

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  13. Hello,My friend and i triet this fantastic red whilst we were visiting melbourne... im not a wine drinker but having this has change my mind....I'm needing some help we would like to buy it could someone please tell me where we can buy it.......In australia thankyou also if you have not ried this red your so missing out..its fantastic with mint leaves & ice

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  14. Hello from Italy! We are Greek students who came in Bergamo and tried this wine! At first we find it a bit funny but afterward we really enjoyed it!

    Cheers!

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Thanks for saying hello. It's great to know there are people out there in cyberspace!

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