Type: White
Country: Italy
Region: Lombardy, Lugana
Grape Variety: 100% Turbiana
Alcohol Percentage: 13%
Viticulture: Organic Farming
Rating: 91 Wine Enthusiast Points
Climate: Generally warm and temperate climate but mitigated by its close proximity to Lake Garda, with constant breeze that keeps the vineyards ventilated, ideal for healthy grape growing
Terroir: Vineyards grow on a soilbed of limestone and clay, cultivated with the simple and double Guyot system
Ageing: Vinified in stainless steel tanks on fine lees for a minimum of 6 months, followed by the ageing of 2 months in the bottle. No malolactic fermentation
Color: Straw yellow
Nose: Pleasant floral aromas of white flowers and fruity notes of apple, plum and citrus
Palate: Fresh, linear and furnished with great sophistication and elegance with delicate hints of white balsamic flowers, traces of apricot and almond
About the Winery:
Ca’ dei Frati was founded in 1939 when patriarch Felice Dal Cero settled in Sirmione (Brescia province) on the Lombardy region side of the Lugana appellation. It’s called Ca’ dei Frati or “friar house,” because it was once owned by monks who grew grapes there. Soil types play a fundamental role in crafting Ca’ dei Frati’s fresh, minerality-driven wines. Lake Garda was created during the Eocene era, some 35 million years ago, by a melting glacier. As the melting ice flowed south from what we now call the Italian Alps, it also brought with its glacial detritus.
Today, these rocky and pebbly “morainic” soils are ideal for the production of fine wine. Because the roots of the vines have to work harder to find the water table in the well-drained soils, their fruit production became more vigorous. As a result, the grape berries are richer in aroma and flavour, with more complexity and depth. Ca’ dei Frati manages 200 hectares planted to vine, accounting for 10 percent of DOC Lugana’s production.