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All organic viticulture, certified and labeled
High quality and easy to enjoy
Employs energy-efficient winemaking practices

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About le fraghe:

What is wine for? I think most wine exists to make food taste good; we've sort of forgotten this in the last few years, with the blockbuster era of dark, concentrated, 'collectible' red wines. Bardolino is the opposite, a wine for drinking with food, and Matilde Poggi at Le Fraghe makes a very good one.

The Bardolino growing area is between the base of Lake Garda and the hills where Valpolicella is grown, not far from Verona in North-East Italy. Matilde Poggi's winery is outside of the town of Affi. Her Bardolino contains more Corvina than normal, 80%, the remaining 20% being Rondinella (both varieties are indigenous). The grapes are estate-grown, organically, and the two varieties are picked and fermented separately. After being aged in stainless-steel tanks the wine is bottled in the spring. This wine would be overwhelmed by oak, and the transparent winemaking style here is very capably assisted by the dynamic consulting winemaker Federico Giotto, who also works with my Prosecco producer Sorelle Bronca.

Le Fraghe Bardolino tastes of cherries, blueberries, and herbs, with hints of orange peel, cinnamon and black pepper. It works with a range of dishes (pork, chicken, grilled salmon). The body of the wine is velvety (not unlike Pinot Noir), with balancing acidity, very drinkable; if the measure of a good wine is that you wish the bottle had another glass left in it, this wine is perfect.

There are very few traditional Italian rosés, despite being such useful wines when the weather's warm. We have been collecting them recently; one of our new finds is Le Fraghe’s charming rosato, traditionally called 'Chiaretto'. A saignée* of her red Bardolino, pale pink in color and redolent of wild strawberries with hints of bitter herbs; we drink it with salmon and other substantial fish dishes, and it's very good with grilled chicken or pork. It's bottled under screwcap, to retain freshness.

Garganega is the principal grape variety in Soave which is grown east of Verona, less than an hour from Le Fraghe, and is indigenous to the area. 'Camporengo' is the name of the place where the Garganega vineyard is located. This fresh, attractive white wine is fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel, and bottled early in the year following the vintage. (The only unusual aspect of the winemaking is that the must is slightly concentrated, when necessary, by freezing some of the grapes before pressing.) Aroma and flavor are of apple, almond and herbs, with a hint of white peach, making this a very good everyday bottle of white wine. Bottled under screwcap, which retains the varietal delicacy better than cork. 

* a portion of the pink juice is bled off from the red wine fermentation, to give a pink wine as well as a more concentrated red wine (more concentrated because the remaining fermentation has a higher solid-to-liquid ratio).

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The Wines:

BArdolino DOC

Le Fraghe Bardolino tastes of cherries, blueberries, and herbs, with hints of orange peel, cinnamon and black pepper. It works with a range of dishes, including pork, chicken and grilled salmon. The body of the wine is velvety (not unlike Pinot Noir), with balancing acidity, very drinkable. If the measure of a good wine is that you wish the bottle had another glass left in it, this wine is perfect.

‘Ròdon’ Bardolino Chiaretto doc

There are very few traditional Italian rosés, despite being such useful wines when the weather's warm, but Garda ‘Chiaretto' is on of the few. A saignée* of her red Bardolino, pale pink in color and redolent of wild strawberries with hints of bitter herbs. We drink it with salmon and other substantial fish dishes, and it's very good with grilled chicken or pork. Bottled under screwcap, to retain freshness.

‘traccia di Rosa’ Chiaretto doc

Matilde also makes an excellent direct press rosé called ‘Traccia di Rosa.’ Direct press means that the red grapes are harvested at a white wine ripeness, so the structure of the resulting wine is quite different from Matilde’s traditional Lake Garda rosé, and Traccia di Rosa is an outstanding rosé, one of the best in our selection. It’s made of the estate’s best Corvina (90%) and Rondinella grapes, left overnight in a cold room, then de-stemmed and put into a tank for a further 6 hours. The free-run juice is fermented in a cement tank at controlled temperature, then aged on the fine lees in concrete until June of the following year before bottling. The result is delicious, one of the wave of fine rosés that have come from Italy in the last few years; beautiful pale pink color, exuberant aroma and flavor of mixed red berries, with hints of citrus peel and herbs, lovely fresh acidity from the earlier harvest. Very useful food wine, too; I will be drinking this with roast chicken, salmon, and all kinds of pasta dishes, not to mention shrimp and chive dumplings food or taro cake. Brava Matilde!

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more Information:

Visit the Le Fraghe website

Read more about screwcaps here