Le Fraghe

Bardolino, Veneto, Italy

As of 2025, Matilde has no less than 40 harvests under her belt. She is a benchmark for Bardolino and “one of Italy’s most respected vintners” (Kerin O’Keefe), having been elected to lead FIVI for two terms and now CEVI.

I am not sure how she does it all. Her family had always sold their grapes into the local co-ops but at just 22 years old, she decided to take her inherited vineyards and make her own wine. This was at a time when Bardolino was dominated by quantity-driven co-ops and old houses that turned out Beaujolais-nouveau-type reds and rosés (Chiaretto is the oldest documented Rosato style in all of Italy!) for folks to smash as they summered at Lake Garda.

Matilde turned her focus to her vineyards. And then to a careful, character-forward style of wine making. And over decades of honing her talent, she arrived. She had to power through the 1990’s and 2000’s when the big extractive style was king and having your wine taken seriously was tantamount to muscling a boozier, inkier, oakier rendition of its classical form. She had the wherewithal to find a Lake Garda’s worth of depth in her wine through farming and trusting her instinct to continue with a tradition of food-perfect and proudly lithe wines. Her wines remained a true-to-place light-footed Bardolino, against all odds, and she managed to win hearts and minds as the world’s palate finally tired of all the bodybuilders.

You can see this in her award-winning Brol Grande Montebaldo, which draws such praise and attention despite its 12% and foregone oak regimen—it's simply her best fruit hailing from a vineyard she carefully planted 26 years ago, picked at a perfectly balanced moment and spontaneously fermented not in wood but in non-glazed cement vats that lend some oxygen without interference. Which leads me to my ultimate point: Matilde’s wines grew a devoted following not because they brought power and unctuousness to an appellation known for simple chuggable wines, but because she laboured in her vineyards until they could deliver that same refreshment with even greater nuance, balance, and memorability.

In my estimation, Le Fraghe (meaning Strawberries in the local dialect!) makes the most moreish and satiating wines I’ve tasted from anywhere in Italy. Perhaps globally. And this is not because they are light, it is because they are so mind-bogglingly balanced. If you’ve seen that episode of Rick & Morty where Rick scoffs at Morty’s yellow little bubble-ina-stick level and then rage-builds a perfectly level platform that fries Morty’s sense of balance, then you’ll understand what I am getting at.

In their best vintages, these wines are balanced beyond description. And that balance leads the palate and stomach and soul swiftly and easily to the real core of these wines’ character. These wines sit squarely in the category of Wines that lift the Body, that feel more than just refreshing, they feel nutritive and restorative and magic with the same honest charm you find in food picked ripe from your own garden. Wine as food.

Their style calls to mind other visionaries of this pre-industrial paradigm, redolent of the wines of Montenidoli’s Elisabetta Faguoli or Barolo’s Enrico Rivetto or the late Marcel Lapierre. No list of Italy’s greatest Rosatos seems to leave off Le Fraghe (Kerin O’Keefe, Decanter, Wine Enthusiast, Forbes, Gambero Rosso, Vinous, Joe Campanale in VINO, etc.). And Matilde’s wines come up all the time when the topic turns to food pairing.

 In Shelley Lindgren’s book Italian Wine (the sommrestaurateur of A16 fame) writes: “with the mild climate around the lake, the area’s sandy, stony soils [a glacial schist deposited by the same ice recession that carved out the lake] yield lighter reds imbued with red cherry flavor. Bardolino is especially known for Chiaretto, its Rosato. Matilde Poggi of historic Chiaretto producer Le Fraghe makes a savory, refreshing Rosato versatile enough to pair with everything from lake trout to curry.” In my experience, Matilde’s wines are truly the Swiss Army Knife of food pairing. It is not often we find benchmark expressions with this kind of passionate farming and hyper-versatility ring in at prices like this, prices that allow the wine to be what it is: food, for everyone. It’s a vocational joy to be representing these wonderful wines. I hope you love them too!

Top Producer: LE FRAGHE. “Founded by Matilde Poggi in 1984 when she was just 22 and located in Cavaion Veronese in the heart of the Bardolino production zone, Le Fraghe makes classy, delicious, food-friendly wines that showcase their specific growing area. One of the denomination’s trailblazers […] she has focused on quality from the outset, back when production was dominated by large, quantity-driven firms and cooperatives. Her goal has always been to respect her vineyards so they reflect their unique microclimate generated by Lake Garda, Monte Baldo and the Valdadige and to produce elegant, highly drinkable wines. Certified organic since 2009, the firm’s polished, savory Bardolino Brol Grande, made with 80% Corvina and 20% Rondinella from the estate’s vineyard in the Montebaldo subzone and aged for one year in concrete tanks, helped set the bar for Bardolino.” Kerin O’Keefe, Bardolino — Time to Take Another Look, March 21 2025.