Falesco is a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

and

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

established in

Montefiascone Montefiascone is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy. It stands on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, about north of Rome. History The name of the city derives from that of the Falisci (''Mons Fa ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1979. It has been described as a "state-of-the-art winery" and its production facilities are now located in

Montecchio Montecchio is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km south of Perugia and about 30 km northwest of Terni. Montecchio borders the following municipalities: Avigliano Umbro, ...

. It is a family owned business, currently run by Riccardo Cotarella, his daughter Domain nah and his brother Renzo that has been described as a "sprawling property" of 670

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s, 370 of which are vineyards. Annual production is almost 3 million bottles. The estate straddles the border of

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, about 50 miles north of Rome. Riccardo Cotarella is assisted by winemaker Pier Paolo Chiasso.

The wines

Falesco does not utilize heavily planted, traditional Italian grape varieties such as

Canaiolo Canaiolo (; also called Canaiolo nero or Uva Canina) is a red Italian wine grape grown through Central Italy but is most noted in Tuscany. Other regions with plantings of Canaiolo include Lazio, Marche and Sardegna. In Umbria a white berried ...

and

Trebbiano Trebbiano is an Italian wine grape, one of the most widely planted grape varieties in the world. It gives good yields, but tends to yield undistinguished wine. It can be fresh and fruity, but does not keep long. Also known as ugni blanc, it h ...

in its higher-quality wines. Although these varieties produce excellent yields, the winery maintains that the quality of the wines made from those varieties are not great. Breaking with Italian tradition, "they planted the best clones of Merlot available" to produce a wine they call "Montiano". Wine writer

Lawrence Osborne Lawrence Osborne (born 1958) is a British novelist and journalist who is currently residing in Bangkok. Osborne was educated at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and at Harvard University, and has since led a nomadic life, residing for years in ...

has called Montiano a "globally significant wine." Next, they bought a large hillside vineyard south of Orvieto which is planted in Cabernet Sauvignon. From these vines, they produce their wine called "Marciliano". The winery also produces a distinctive local white wine called

Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone (also known as just Est! Est!! Est!!!) is an Italian wine region centered on the commune of Montefiascone in the province of Viterbo in Lazio. Since 1966, the white Trebbiano and Malvasia bianca-based wines produ ...

. This wine is "composed of 60 percent Trebbiano 30 percent Malvasia and 10 percent Roscetto", and is considered a "generic Umbrian cheap white known around the world." They sell a white wine made from the roscetto grape is called "Ferentano". Another of their offerings is a sweet wine called Aleatico di Gradoli. Falesco has two product lines based on

terroir (, ; from ''terre'', "land") is a French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat. Collectively, these conte ...

. The "Latium line" comprises wines from Montefiascone in the

Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history. ...

province in Latium, and the "Umbria line" comprises wines produced in the

and

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

area.

References

{{reflist Wineries of Italy