Fontana Candida winemaker, Mauro Merz, was here in Austin along with Lars Leicht, major-domo for Banfi Wines Credit: Photo by Wes Marshall
Frascati is a fascinating wine. During the last few decades, it has been ill treated by winemakers who decided to make lots of weak-willed wine rather than focus on making great wines in smaller quantities. Luckily for us, there are a few wineries that always focused on quality.

The best Frascatis attain the minerality of good Chablis, but since they are often made from Malvasia, they also have gorgeous floral aromas. Fontana Candida Frascati ($12) is one of the best examples and their winemaker, Mauro Merz, was nice enough to stop here in Austin and have lunch with a few of us. He was joined by Austin-o-phile Lars Leicht, the Director of Communications for Banfi Wines which is the company that imports Fontana Candida. The real surprise was that his wines actually age well, especially their high end Frascati called Luna Nater ($21). The idea of a relatively inexpensive Italian white wine living more than a couple of years is amazing. These wines are some of my favorite house wines because they work so well with either food or just as sippers. The only problem is, they don’t ship huge quantities into Texas, so they take a little hunting. It’s well worth the effort.

Four separate vintages of the reserve Luna Nater Frascati Credit: Photo by Wes Marshall

The distributor informs us that the Fontana Candida Frascati is available at various Specs and HEBs as well as Sagra Enoteca, Goody Goody, Carinos, Kroger, and Market Street. The Luna Mater is in Winestyles, Ninos Restaurant, and Toscana Ristorante.

This article appears in June 1 • 2012.

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Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.