Italian Wine Adventure #24: Frappato! The Chillable Red Wine!
The Wine Pair PodcastMay 10, 2026
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00:48:1733.22 MB

Italian Wine Adventure #24: Frappato! The Chillable Red Wine!

Of course you can chill red wine! But, not just any red wine, though. There are specific fruity and juicy red wines that are amazing when they are chilled, and one of the very best is Frappato. Frappato comes from Sicily, and for a long time it was used as a cheap blending grape. But no longer! Over the past several decades, winemakers in Sicily have been making beautiful, fun, food-friendly Frappato that are perfect for a picnic or summer cookout. And people in the know are really starting t...

Of course you can chill red wine! But, not just any red wine, though. There are specific fruity and juicy red wines that are amazing when they are chilled, and one of the very best is Frappato. Frappato comes from Sicily, and for a long time it was used as a cheap blending grape. But no longer! Over the past several decades, winemakers in Sicily have been making beautiful, fun, food-friendly Frappato that are perfect for a picnic or summer cookout. And people in the know are really starting to pay attention. If you want to be counted among the cool kids, and you need to get out of your red wine rut, Frappato is a perfect answer. Frappato is often compared to Gamay and Pinot Noir, although its origins link it to the great Italian wine grape Sangiovese, the grape in Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. Our take? Run, don’t walk, to find yourself some Frappato, pop it in your fridge, and enjoy. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2022 Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria, 2024 Gurrieri Frappato

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Show Notes

Episode #217: Italian Wine Adventure #24: Frappato! The Chillable Red Wine!  00:00

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Key Questions

  • What is Frappato wine?
  • What does Frappato taste like?
  • Should you chill Frappato?
  • Is Frappato similar to Pinot Noir?
  • How does Frappato compare to Beaujolais?
  • What food pairs with Frappato?
  • Is Frappato a good wine to buy?

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Episode Overview and First Thoughts on Frappato 00:33
Hello fellow Pour Souls! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair!

If you're new to our podcast, here's what we do: Every week we buy wines under $25 with our own money, taste them, and give you our brutally honest opinion on whether they're worth buying. Nobody pays us to review specific wines, we don't accept free bottles from wineries, and we're not afraid to call out a bad wine when we taste one. Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining - so if that sounds like your vibe, welcome to our tribe of wine lovers.


That name, Pour Souls, came to us courtesy of listener Timmy. Thanks, Timmy. And, again, if you have ideas for tribe names, send them our way, and we’ll ask you if you would like to be on the pod if you have not been on yet.

So, today, Carmela, we are on another Italian Wine Adventure, and we are heading back to Sicily to talk about a wine that some people love, and some people just don’t get, but that is supposed to be great for summer called Frappato.

Now, we have done several wines from Sicily on the podcast, and in fact this is the fourth out of the last five of our Italian wine adventures on Sicilian wines that has included Nero d’Avola, Etna Rosso, and Etna Bianco.

You may be wondering why we are spending so much time on Sicilian wines, and there are a few reasons. First is that maybe it's because we are trying to put the pressure on ourselves to go to Sicily because, despite the number of trips we have made to Italy, neither of us has ever been. The second reason is because of the tv series White Lotus which made everyone want to go to Sicily.

But the third, and most important reason is because Sicilian wine has had a tremendous turnaround over the last couple of decades that we really need to celebrate, and we firmly believe that more people just need to know about the wines that are coming from the island.

For most of the 20th century, Sicily was primarily known as Europe's bulk wine supplier, and it was often thought of as a Fine Wine Desert. Sicilian grapes were often over-ripened and sold to producers in northern Italy and France to "beef up" or add body to thinner wines.

Red wines from Sicily that were made during this time were generally thought of as alcohol heavy fruit bombs - not very, not very sophisticated. By the 1970s and 80s, many people had sort of given up on Sicilian wine, and local winemaking was practically abandoned as the young people left the island for industrial jobs in Northern Italy.

However, there was a shift in quality that started in the late 1980s and 90s led by a handful of producers who wanted to bring back winemaking in Sicily and focus on local grapes and traditions. Basically, they wanted to move away from being the supplier of cheap crappy bulk wine. These winemakers started to focus on natural winemaking and native grapes like Nero d’Avola, Frappato, and Nerello Mascalese over international grapes like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, which had been planted all over the island.

A major milestone occurred in 2005 when Cerasuolo di Vittoria was elevated to DOCG status, becoming Sicily's first and only denomination to hold Italy's highest quality designation. Incidentally, Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato. Put that in your brain box and impress your wine nerd friends.

Today, Sicily is considered one of the most exciting and innovative wine regions in Italy. For many wine nerds, Mount Etna has emerged as a prime destination for great, less expensive wine, particularly for the Nerello Mascalese grape, which is the main grape in Etna Rosso wines, and as we said in our episode on it, often compared to Burgundy, aka Pinot Noir.

There is also a significant trend among the cool people toward "chillable reds", which Frappato falls into perfectly for those seeking low-tannin, high-acid, and lighter bodied wines rather than heavy, big, flabby, oak-driven reds.

And, many top Sicilian producers now lead the way in organic and biodynamic viticulture, focusing on low-intervention methods and ancient techniques like fermenting in terracotta amphorae or big clay jars like we talked about in the Alentejo wines from Portugal.

So, look, the cool kids are all about wines from Sicily, so if they are not on your radar yet, we are honestly trying like hell to get them on your radar so you can be cool enough for tiktok! And we have two Frappato wines that we have chilling and we are going to taste and review today to let you know if either or both of them should be on your wine list . . .

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and know that we buy all of the wine we taste and review every week so that we can give you real and honest reviews. If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a five star rating and review so we can grow listeners.

We also love to hear from you and we always respond so you can follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at thewinepairpodcast. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also send us a note at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and let us know about wines your want us to review or just shoot the breeze, we love chatting it up.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who is looking for a light, chillable red to drink this summer, because this wine may be just the thing they are looking for!


Topic: WTF is Frappato? 08:24

Ok, Carmela. It’s time to find out just what the eff Frappato is, shall we?

Frappato is believed to have originated in the Vittoria region of southeastern Sicily. There is some debate about how long it has been around, but there are some interesting factoids about it to put into your brainbox and also use to impress your wine nerd friends.

The first written mention of Frappato dates to 1760, in a work by the botanist and librarian Domenico Sestini entitled “Notes on the Wines of Vittoria.” There are some who say there are regional records that place the variety in the Ragusa area as far back as the 1600s. Ragusa and Vittoria are pretty close to each other, so both are likely true. 

This is a really juicy morsel of fact, though. Modern DNA research has found that Frappato is a direct genetic relative of Sangiovese, and some experts believe it may be a cross between Sangiovese and another unidentified variety. Which is really interesting. Like, how did it get there?

Beyond written records, DNA markers do link the variety to ancient Greek colonization in the 6th century BC. This suggests that while the name "Frappato" is more recent, its genetic lineage has been part of Sicilian viticulture for 1000s of years.

The name "Frappato" itself provides evidence of its long-standing presence among local farmers. It comes from the Sicilian dialect word "frappatu" or "rappatu," which means "many clusters" and so its name reflects that it came from the peasants or common folk because of a tradition of identifying a vine by its physical characteristics, in this case its compact and abundant bunches.

For most of its history, Frappato was mostly used as a blending component to tame Nero d’Avola which can be very strong, sometimes described as muscular. Adding Frappato
added freshness, bright red fruit aromas, and floral notes to blends.

By the mid-20th century, Frappato, like all Sicilian wine that we mentioned earlier, faced a crisis: winemaking was being abandoned and forgotten as younger people left for better lives in other parts of Italy, and it was part of the bulk wine that Sicily was most known for.

The "modern" history of Frappato began in the 1980s, also with the renaissance of Sicilian wines. These winemakers moved away from industrial methods, and so did very traditional things like crushing grapes by foot. Which I kind of wish they wouldn't do. In recent decades, Frappato has really started to catch on as winemakers started to make 100% Frappato wines rather than just putting it in blends, and were able to show  its potential as an elegant, light-bodied standalone variety. Some call it a sophisticated "chillable red" and a good alternative to Pinot Noir for consumers who value freshness.

In addition to Pinot Noir, Frappato is often compared to Gamay, and some call it Sicily’s answer to Beaujolais, which in and of itself is one of the more misunderstood wines. In our Beaujolais episode, I gave one of the wines a 10 which we have almost never done, and so if you think Beaujolais is the Nouveau crap that comes out around Thanksgiving, you are really missing the boat.

Both Frappato and Beaujolais are loved for their freshness, bright acidity, and low tannin levels, which makes them chillable and easy drinking. Some producers of Frappato utilize carbonic maceration, which sounds dirty but isn’t. It’s a technique most famously used in Gamay production in Beaujolais, to enhance the wine's fruitiness.

For a quick reminder, carbonic maceration is a way of making red wine that is a little like letting grapes ferment from the inside out. Normally, winemakers crush grapes first, and then yeast turns the grape sugar into alcohol. With carbonic maceration, the winemaker puts whole, uncrushed grapes into a sealed tank filled with carbon dioxide. Since there is little or no oxygen, the grapes start to ferment inside their own skins before they are crushed. The result is wines that are fruity, bright, smooth, low in tannin, and with almost candy-like fruit flavors.

Both Frappato and Gamay are food-friendly and are often said to have a silky texture. They make an unpretentious yet delicious wine that is maybe too easy drinking for the wine snobs, but great for people who actually like to have some fun.

Classic Frappato is still said to come from the Vittoria and Ragusa areas of Sicily, however, today more than 46% of Frappato in Sicily is grown in the area of Trapani which is in the northwestern part of the Island, so far from Ragusa and Vittoria. They also make Frappato in the province of Agrigento and on Mt. Etna, and about 85% of all Frappato is made in Sicily. Outside of Sicily, they are growing a lot of Frappato in Puglia, and they are starting to grow it in California including in Paso Robles, and other warm climate areas like Australia are starting to grow it as well.

And, on a side note, the right serving temperature for Frappato is said to be 57 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit or 14 to 16 degrees Celsius. That is about cellar temperature, or wine fridge temperature,  but not fridge cold. The advice we have is the 20/20 rule, so pop that wine in the fridge about 20-30 minutes before you serve it.

But that’s enough information. I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Frappato Wines We Chose for This Episode 18:03

Today, the wines we have chosen for this episode average under $25 each, but one was a bit over that price and one was a bit under. They should be relatively easy to find because I bought one at wine.com and the other I bought at a local Seattle wine shop called Esquin, but this wine can be found all over the web. Frappato is getting easier to find for sure, but you are going to have to go to a store with a good wine section, or a wine with a good Italian wine section, and, as always, go to your local wine shop like we did and ask them and they will be happy to find you a Frappato.

The first wine we are going to drink today is the 2022 Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria. It was a little hard to find out much about this vintage, most of the information online is for the newest 2024 vintage, but I can tell you that there were a whole mess of good ratings, including 91s from Decanter, Wine Advocate, Falstaff, and sucky James Suckling.

Since it was a little hard to find out too much information about this specific vintage, I will do the best I can from information I was able to glean from the interwebs. The wine is 100% Frappato, and as the name suggests, it is from the Vittoria region of Sicily. 

The winery says the wine comes from 10 to 20 year old vines planted in black soils with white stones. They use spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel. They also macerate the wine for about a week, which can make you go blind, and then they age the wine in stainless steel for 6 months. The winery is also certified organic. 

The winery traces its history back to the 1800s, and has been in the same family for six generations. It is currently run by Gaetana Jacono who really focuses on indigenous grapes, and in 2013 she was elected the brand ambassador for the wines of Cerasuolo di Vittoria, and her winery is said to make a very good Cerasuolo di Vittoria.

The next wine we are going to drink is the 2024 Gurrieri Frappato which also says Terre Siciliane on the label. This one was also hard to find out too much about, although, again, I was able to find it on many places on the web, and I bought it at wine.com. There was a tech sheet but I am not 100% sure it is for the 2024 vintage, so cross your fingers that this information is correct.

The grapes look to come from the Ragusa area in the Fegotto district. The soil is sand and clay, so good for water-stressing grapes. The winery says they hand harvest the grapes into small crates in mid-September at perfect technological and polyphenolic maturity. They ferment with indigenous yeast carried out at controlled temperature with 20 days of skin maceration. Then they age for 6 months in steel and at least 3 months in the bottle. They say they do light filtration and cold stabilization. 

For those who want to know, cold stabilization is a winemaking technique where the wine is chilled down before it is bottled. Because wine naturally contains something called tartaric acid, when wine gets very cold, that acid can form tiny crystals. They look a little like broken glass or salt, and you have probably seen them occasionally when you open a wine bottle, but they are totally harmless. The problem is that many people see crystals in a bottle and think something is wrong with the wine. So, before bottling, winemakers may chill the wine on purpose. This causes the crystals to form in the tank instead of later in your refrigerator. Then the winemaker removes the crystals, and the wine goes into the bottle looking clear and clean.

The winery is run by brother and sister Giovanni and Angela Gurrieri which they started in 2010. I think I read that both of them are engineers, too, so wow. They focus on native vines which they grow organically, and they produce in small quantities - for instance, they only made 3,000 cases of this wine

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!

LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES

 

2022 Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria, 2024 Gurrieri Frappato Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 23:29

Wine: Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Italy, Sicily
Year: 2022
Price: $22.99
Retailer: Esquin
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Frappato
Professional Rating: D 91, JS 91, WA 91, Falstaff 91  Vivino 3.8

What we tasted and smelled in this Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria: 

  • Color: Ruby red with a brown hue around the edges, translucent light red, looks like a Gamay or Pinot Noir
  • On the nose: Perfumey, flowers, rose petals, very aromatic, cherry candy, tart cherry, pepper, anise, cinnamon
  • In the mouth: Red and black licorice, cherry, cherry cordial, fruit delicious, good chilled, steely on the back, refreshing, more tannin than expected, grape skins, strawberry bramble, clay, tea


Food to pair with this Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria: Picnic wine, cheese, sandwiches, cookout wine, grilled foods, steak sandwich, meatball sandwich, cubano sandwich, pork cutlet sandwich
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 8/10
  • Carmela: 8/10


Wine: Gurrieri Frappato (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Italy, Sicily
Year: 2024
Price: $27.97
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Frappato
Professional Rating: Vivino

What we tasted and smelled in this Gurrieri Frappato: 

  • Color: Light red, pomegranate red
  • On the nose: Almost meaty when swirled, gamey, grandma’s perfume, potpourri, dried flowers, baby powder, matchstick, strawberry, cherry, overripe fruit, day-old strawberry, cinnamon bear, Hot Tamale candy 
  • In the mouth: Taste better than it smells, very sticky tannins, fruit tea, liqueur tasting, a little harsh, slap-you-in-the-face, some red fruit, a bit of austerity, lacks some balance


Food to pair with this Gurrieri Frappato: Charcuterie, grilled foods, grilled chicken, grilled pizza, Cobb salad, blue cheese, Gorgonzola, blue cheese burger
 

Gurrieri Frappato Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 6/10
  • Carmela: 6/10



Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

  • Carmela:Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria
  • Joe: Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria



The Test: Did we nail the taste profiles expected from Frappato?  36:58

  • General 
    • Intense red fruit-forward notes of fresh strawberry, tart cherry, pomegranate, and raspberry, often accompanied by white pepper, clove, cinnamon, and distinct herbal or earthy undertones like tea or sage. Light-to-medium body with a delicate structure. High, refreshing acidity (often described as "mouth-watering"). Low to moderate, soft tannins.
  • Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria
    • Winery: Very clear ruby red in color. Fragrant and fresh on the nose with hints of red fruit, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, violets and sage. Very vivacious and fresh palate before a dry, pleasant, and persistent finish.
    • D: all charming red fruits – raspberry, pomegranate, wild strawberry – coupled with incisive acidity and a vertical palate. Fresh, vibrant and moreish
    • JS: Fresh and fruity red with aromas of strawberries, raspberries and cinnamon. Medium-bodied, crunchy and lightly chalky in texture. From organically grown grapes
  • Gurrieri Frappato 
    • Winery: Elegant, beautiful bouquet, with aromas of cherry, pomegranate, raspberry, roses & white pepper. Fragrant & fresh with the minerality & backbone to be more than just a light wine. Notes of licorice, graphite, dried red fruit & a touch of spice. Bright acidity & the correct amount of tannin.
    • Champion Wine Cellars: In the glass, it shows a bright ruby color with vivid clarity. The nose is lifted and aromatic, with notes of cherry, raspberry, and pomegranate alongside rose petal and a light spice note. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with fresh acidity and a clean, energetic profile, showing red berry fruit with a subtle savory edge. The tannins are soft and lightly structured, giving shape without weight. The finish is dry, vibrant, and refreshing, with lingering fruit and floral tones.



What is the verdict on Frappato? 39:10
We are down with it, we will definitely be having more and want to have it in Sicily. Want a fruity juicy, fruity version of the wine. Great with foods. You must have it chilled. Great summer wine.


And now it is time to head over to our news desk so that we can cover our wine in the news this week segment. And the story this week was sent to us by Bud, so thank you Bud for sending us this news.

Wine in the news this week: "A Gut Punch": Spring Freeze Devastates Vineyards in the Mid-Atlantic 40:23




Our wine in the news story was written by Dave McIntyre in his Substack blog called Dave McIntyre's WineLine, and it is entitled "A Gut Punch": Spring Freeze Devastates Vineyards in the Mid-Atlantic. The article Bud sent came from the Virginia Pilot but it was behind a paywall, but we have links to that article, this article, and several others in our show notes.

Now, this is not quite the tone of our normal Wine in the News This Week segments, but I wanted to talk about it for a couple of reasons. First, we did several interviews with Virginia winemakers, so we want you to listen to those and learn about those fantastic people who are likely impacted by this news, and because Virginia winemakers and others impacted by this frost need our support. Also, one of our favorite listeners, Christine AKA Tips2 LiveBy just went and visited some Virginia wines and told us all about it!

Here is the story: Over two nights, April 20th and 21st, temperatures crashed into the low 20s. The damage stretched from the Shenandoah Valley to Northern Virginia, through the Monticello AVA around Charlottesville, down into Bedford County, and all the way southeast to New Kent County near Richmond. The same freeze rolled into Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southern New York. The Virginia Wineries Association is calling it the most significant frost event in 15 to 20 years.

The numbers are not great. Some wineries like New Kent lost up to 90 percent of its crop. Wind Vineyards in Tappahannock is looking at 300,000 dollars in lost production. Thankfully, not everyone was impacted the same way, and the silver lining, if there is one, is that the 2026 vintage isn't gone, it's just going to be smaller and the winemakers will be more selective.

And that is what amazed us the most about this story as we dug into it. You can see how resilient these winemakers are. These are people who've been knocked down before, who know exactly what they signed up for, and who are already thinking about how to save this year, and how to prepare for next year.

Take Jim Law at Linden Vineyards. He's been growing wine in Virginia for 47 years, and he lost 20 to 30 percent of his crop, a first for him. But eight years ago, long before any of this, he planted what he calls a climate change trial vineyard. Different varieties, chosen specifically because they might handle exactly this kind of unpredictability better. He saw this coming, and that shows the kind of people who are making wine in Virginia.

And, really, the whole area is already rallying. Dave McIntyre put it perfectly in his article. Wine isn't an industry, it's a community. The cellars are still full from this fall’s harvest. The 2023 vintage on shelves right now is outstanding. The single most useful thing any of us can do is walk into a Virginia tasting room and buy a bottle.

One last thing. Vines have what are called secondary buds, a backup system the plant deploys when the primary buds get destroyed. Less fruit, slower ripening, but they produce. The vine, even after losing almost everything, just tries again. So, let’s give positive vibes to the winemakers in Virginia who might be able to make something of this second bud.

Carmela, what do you think we and our listeners can do to help these winemakers get through this?


Listener Shoutouts 44:27
We have some fun listener shoutouts for this week, and we so appreciate when you reach out to use and tell us what you think, or what you are drinking, and so here are some shoutouts:

  • Really want to call out a newsletter we love and are often mentioned in called The Spill, and listener Trish actually told us about them. It’s a free, daily newsletter of wine news, education and entertainment. Human-curated without the help of AI to keep it real and relevant, The Spill brings the best wine news and entertainment every day. Created and edited by a 30+ year wine media veteran. Not paying us for this - I just reached out and really liked Tom the creator. Sign up at thespill.net 
  • Christine aka Tips2LiveBy let us know she visited the Septenary winery which is the label Corry Craighill runs who was one of the Virginia winemakers we did an interview series on, and she visited Rosemont wines and we interviewed their winemaker Justin Rose!
  • Ms Otoo from Ghana in Spotify - she wants to try some white Rioja and we want to know what she thinks!



Wines coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us 46:01


Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 46:26

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and remember, we buy all of our own wine and we do all of the writing and recording and editing to bring you a show every week because we absolutely love doing it, and our small little ask for you is that you please follow or subscribe to our podcast and also please leave us a nice rating and review  to help us grow our listeners - and a huge thank you to all of you who have done so already! 

You can also follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at thewinepairpodcast. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also visit our “Shop Wine” section where you can find links to buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode.  I will also note that on our website, if you are curious about a wine we have covered in the past, we do have a pretty good search functionality, so you can use that find wines you want to know more about. 

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note or DM us and give us some feedback or let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com 

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.


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RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. What is Frappato wine?
A. Frappato is a light-bodied red wine from Sicily, made from a grape with roots dating to the 1760s and possibly as far back as the 1600s. DNA research links it to Sangiovese, the grape in Chianti and Brunello. It's known for bright red fruit, floral aromas, high acidity, and low tannins. Most people call it a "chillable red" and it earns that reputation.

Q. What does Frappato taste like?
A. Classic Frappato tastes like fresh strawberry, tart cherry, pomegranate, and raspberry, with notes of white pepper, cinnamon, and floral or herbal undertones like rose petal or sage. It's light and bright, not heavy or tannic. We got rose petals, cherry candy, anise, and a steely, refreshing finish on the Valle Dell'Acate we tasted.

Q. Should you chill Frappato?
A. Yes, always. Frappato's recommended serving temperature is 57 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit, which is cellar temperature, not fridge-cold. The easy rule: put it in the fridge 20 to 30 minutes before you pour. Chilling brightens the fruit and sharpens the acidity. It makes a good wine noticeably better.

Q. Is Frappato similar to Pinot Noir?
A. Yes, and wine people make that comparison often. Both are light-bodied, high-acid, low-tannin reds with red fruit flavors and an elegant structure. The difference: Frappato is brighter and fruitier with more floral notes, while Pinot Noir tends toward earthier, more complex territory. If you love one, you'll likely enjoy the other.

Q. How does Frappato compare to Beaujolais?
A. They're closer than most people realize. Both are made from light, high-acid grapes, and some Frappato producers use carbonic maceration, the same technique that defines Beaujolais. The key difference is origin and grape: Frappato is Sicilian, Gamay is French. Both are chillable, food-friendly, and criminally underrated.

Q. What food pairs with Frappato?
A. Frappato is one of the better picnic and cookout wines out there. We paired it with sandwiches and grilled foods: a steak sandwich, meatball sub, cubano, pork cutlet. It also works with charcuterie, grilled pizza, blue cheese burgers, and Cobb salad. Light enough to let the food shine.

Q. Is Frappato a good wine to buy?
A. If you like light, fresh, food-friendly reds, yes. We rated the 2022 Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato Vittoria an 8 out of 10 and both chose it as the wine we'd finish that night. The 2024 Gurrieri earned a 6 from both of us. Look for the Valle Dell'Acate first.

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