Alex Roe Writes:
Fragolino is a mysterious, and for some, illegal drink. For those not in the know, fragolino is a type of grape, which gets its name from the Italian for strawberry – fragola. This grape tends to produce a wine with a sort of strawberry flavour, hence its ‘fragolino’ moniker.
Fragolino Drink
The ‘ino’ part of the word ‘fragolino’, pronounced ‘eenoh’, indicates that something is much smaller than normal in Italian. Example: bicchiere – glass, can become bicchierino – small glass, as in a small glass of wine. Back to the strawberry wine.
This Food and Wine Friday post takes a look at why the fragolino became illegal, and looks at a fragolino drink which is sold, supposedly legally, in Italian supermarkets.
Grapes from America
Popular opinion here in Italy that wine produced with the fragolino grape, also known, interestingly as the uva Americana – American grape, is illegal. As you may have guessed, the fragolino grape is not an European variety, but one which, judging by the name, came from the New World. The official Latin title for fragolino is vitis labrusca, by the way.
From what I’ve understood, substandard wine production methods during the first half of the twentieth century led to worries about the quality of wines being produced in Italy, and seeing as the fragolino grape was often used in the production of poor quality wine, legislation in Italy was introduced to ban wine production using this particular grape. Even today, the poor, misunderstood fragolino grape cannot be used in the production of wine. It can, however, be used to produce distilled drinks, so a fragolino grappa would be OK. Seeing as grappa is not wine, I guess Italy’s esteemed legislators must have thought that this exception was acceptable. Read More
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