Many Italian wineries proudly name their wines after the towns around which their vineyards are spread —Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, Fiano di Avellino and the lovely small city of Frascati, less than an hour south of Rome (if the autostrada is not jammed up) and within the province of Lazio. The wine named Frascati itself has not, until recently, been highly regarded aside from being a good white thirst quencher, although it was supposedly a favorite of the ancient Romans and the popes for whom it was readily available.

The grapes used are Malvasia di Candia, Malvasia del Lazio, Grecchetto, Bombino Bianco and Trebbiano, none distinguished on its own. While Frascati has had a DOC appellation as of 1966, the upgrading in 2011 to DOCG—a government guarantee of high quality—is another example of the ranking’s questionable dependability.