Frappato: Sicily's Pale, Chillable Red

Frappato is pronounced frah-PAH-toh.

Here is a red wine you can pull from the fridge in July and drink cold without apology. Frappato is that pale, that light, that fresh. If you like Pinot Noir but flinch at what good Pinot costs, this Sicilian grape gives you most of the pleasure for less money.

What it tastes like

Pour Frappato and the first thing you notice is how light the color is, closer to a dark rosé than to a Cabernet. The nose is where it earns its keep: wild strawberry, red cherry, a clear note of violets, and a dry whisper of Mediterranean herbs underneath.

On the palate it's high-toned and bright. Acidity does the lifting, tannin barely registers, and the body stays feathery from first sip to last. That combination is why it takes a chill so well. Fifteen minutes in the fridge tightens the fruit and sharpens the perfume instead of dulling it.

Think of it as a warm-country cousin to Pinot Noir. Same translucence, same emphasis on aroma over muscle, but with a sun-warmed strawberry character that only Sicily gives.

Where it comes from, and why you've missed it

Frappato's home is Vittoria, in the flat, hot southeastern corner of Sicily. For most of its life it played a supporting role. It's one of the two grapes in Cerasuolo di Vittoria, the island's only DOCG, where it makes up 30 to 50 percent of the blend and Nero d'Avola supplies the rest. Nero d'Avola brings the depth and color; Frappato brings the scent and the lift.

That blending job kept Frappato in the background for decades. It was the aromatic seasoning, rarely the headline. Growers also found it a tricky ripener, and a light red from a hot island was a hard sell in an era that prized big, dark, oak-heavy wines.

The varietal bottling, Frappato standing alone, is a more recent idea, pushed by a small group of Sicilian growers who saw that lightness was a feature worth selling on its own. The market took a while to agree. Now that pale, low-alcohol, chillable reds are what a lot of drinkers actually want in summer, Frappato reads less like an obscurity and more like a wine that was early.

Bottles to look for

A few names have done the most to put varietal Frappato on US shelves. Arianna Occhipinti's Il Frappato is the reference point, a natural, perfumed version from Vittoria that gets poured by the glass in serious wine bars. Planeta and COS both make cleaner, more classical Frappato from the same zone, and Valle dell'Acate is another reliable Vittoria producer. For the blend, look for any Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG on the label.

Rooting for a grape like this means being honest about its limits. Frappato has no long critical scorecard the way Pinot Noir does, so you're buying on producer and region more than on a famous number. And the lightness cuts both ways. A warm, over-extended, or tired bottle can slip from delicate into simply thin. Buy from a good importer, serve it cool, and drink it young, within a few years of the vintage, while the fruit is still singing.

Where to buy

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Frappato has real US availability, mostly through natural-leaning shops and better wine retailers, with Occhipinti, Planeta, and COS the easiest names to find. It's usually stocked as a Sicilian or Italian specialty rather than a supermarket staple, so search by name rather than hoping to stumble on it.

browse Frappato on Wine.com →

If you're switching from a famous grape

If your default light red is Pinot Noir, Frappato is the swap to make this summer. You get the same pale color, the same aromatic, low-tannin profile, and the same food-friendliness, usually at a friendlier price, plus a trick Pinot rarely pulls off as gracefully: it's genuinely good chilled. Start with a single bottle, serve it cool, and see if you miss the Pinot at all. See Wines Like Pinot Noir and Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.

— Chris Berry