Freisa Wine Guide

Although practically unknown outside the borders of Piedmont, Freisa wine is a small jewel of Italian enology. It is a lean, fragrant, harmonious, elegant wine with incredible drinkability. The merit is of a slender structure, delicate tannins and frightening juiciness, quite the opposite of Barolo, but one does not live on tannins alone.

Incidentally, Freisa wine is the classic everyday bottle, to be paired with a thousand dishes, even fish if you wish, but it finds the ideal pairing with great Piedmontese appetizers, starting with veal with tuna sauce.

Freisa bouquet

The nose is delicate, pungent, dominated by a fruit that ranges from strawberry to wild berries, passing through cherries. There is never a shortage of undergrowth, mushrooms, roots and endless flowers: geranium and violets. Blood and mineral traces. The vegetal note is perceptible, but always well managed: do not expect the fried green peppers of Cabernet Sauvignon, but its herbaceous elegance is appreciable. It does not have a thousand perfumes, but those present are well marked, sunny and clear.

What does Freisa wine taste like?

If you taste a Freisa bean you will first of all feel acid flavors, this is its main characteristic: freshness. The sugars do not reach very high levels, so you do not get very alcoholic and full-bodied wines, quite the opposite, Freisa is nervous and snappy. In the mouth, it is a juicy wine, not ample or sumptuous, but taut, sharp, played on a phrasing between acidity and flavor but incessant and contagious. The tannins are usually not powerful and even the extract is not pumped to a thousand. Freisa wine tends to be born as a medium-bodied daily wine, it can age for a few years in the bottle, but unless it is Rinaldi’s Freisa, it’s not really an immortal wine to be tasted after 20 years. There is nothing wrong with being a dry and pleasant wine that gives immense enjoyment. If we say that Freisa is not too complex a wine, but pulpy and with compulsive drinking, it is a compliment, an invitation to drink. Wine does not have to spend 10 years in the cellar to refine like a Barolo …

The history of the Freisa grape: where the fresearum is born

The first news about this historic Piedmontese vine comes to us in the early 1500s, precisely in 1517 that the first commercial news is recorded on a load of Fresearum, grapes considered of great quality at the time. Since that time the vine has taken root throughout Piedmont, since it has no problems of any kind and easily adapts to any soil, both calcareous and clayey. Not to mention that it is one of the few vines naturally resistant to downy mildew, a fact that has been elected as a vine to save harvest in every corner of Piedmont.

Production areas of the Freisa grape

As we have seen this vine is practically an immortal, a warrior and therefore we find it in the main wine-growing areas of Piedmont, but rarely outside its chosen homeland. In Alba there is, Asti produces a lot, Chieri, in Monferrato competes with Barbera and thrives even in an area that is not very well-known such as the Pre-Alps around Pinerolo.

Average price of Freisa

The leanest and simplest bottles start at 6 euros, but there is no lack of more intense and penetrating interpretations such as Fenocchio’s excellent (sold at 12-14), Rinaldi’s Freisa (sold for 28 euros) or Trinchero’s, which is around at about 20.

Freisa food pairings

It is the typical red wine to be paired all-round with Piedmontese cuisine: veal with tuna sauce, rabaton, Savoyard potatoes, Tomino, bagna cauda, ​​but also roasts, Piedmontese mixed fry and tajarin with truffles. Recommended dishes: chicken curry, baked lasagna, truffle risotto, pulled pork, Argentine meat empanadas, burritos, polenta with meat sauce, grilled meat; fillet of beef with porcini mushrooms; Cheeseburger.