Freisa

Freisa is an old red wine grape of Piedmont in north-west Italy, a close relative of Nebbiolo that trades power for perfume and bite. Pale to medium ruby in the glass, it is defined by tart red fruit — wild strawberry, raspberry and sour cherry — a lift of dried rose and violet, and a firm frame of high acidity and grippy, sometimes bitter tannin. Freisa is one of Italy's great chameleons: it is bottled dry and still, but also — traditionally and most characteristically — lightly sparkling (frizzante) and gently off-dry (amabile), a fizzy, faintly sweet red that fizzed through Piedmontese country life for generations. Astringent and aromatic, loved and divisive in equal measure, it is a wine that rewards the curious.