Falesco is a winery

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, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...

 and vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

 established in Montefiascone

Montefiascone

Montefiascone is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo, Italy, located on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, 95 km north of GRA .-History:...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

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

Montecchio

Montecchio is a comune in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km south of Perugia and about 30 km northwest of Terni....

. It is a "family affair" run by Riccardo Cotarella, his brother Renzo and his daughter Dominga. Described as a "sprawling property" of 670 acres, some 370 acres of which are vineyards. Annual production is almost 3 million bottles. The estate straddles the border of Lazio and Umbria

Umbria

Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...

, about 50 miles north of Rome.

Riccardo Cotarella consults with dozens of Italian wineries, and has a reputation for excellence in vineyard operations, modern winemaking techniques and wine marketing. His greatest pride, though are the wines "made under the Falesco label from grapes grown in the family's vineyards in the Umbria and Lazio regions of central Italy." Falesco's winemaker Cotarella has been called a "pioneer in the Italian wine industry" because of "his expertise is in every aspect of the business from growing techniques, to technological innovations, to winemaking to marketing." Cotarella is assisted by winemaker Pier Paolo Chiasso.

The wines

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

Canaiolo

Canaiolo 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 mutation known as Canaiolo Bianco exist...

 and Trebbiano

Trebbiano

Trebbiano is the second most widely planted grape in the world. It gives good yields, but makes undistinguished wine at best. It can be fresh and fruity, but does not keep long. Its high acidity makes it important in Cognac production...

 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

Lawrence Osborne is a British novelist, traveler and memoirist, currently residing in New York City. He is known for unusual travelogues that explore single subjects or places, such as Paris, global wine culture or the little-known neighborhoods of Bangkok....

 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

Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone is an Italian wine region centered around the commune of Montefiascone in province of Viterbo in Latium...

.
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

Aleatico

Aleatico is a red wine grape. Ampelographers suspect that Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains may be a mutation of the Aleatico cultivar. Aleatico is notable for being the primary grape in the cult wine Aleatico di Portoferraio made in Elba. It is grown most commonly in the Puglia and Lazio region of...

.

Falesco has two product lines based on terroir

Terroir

Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...

. The “Latium line” comprises wines from Montefiascone in the Viterbo

Viterbo

See also Viterbo, Texas and Viterbo UniversityViterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 80 driving / 80 walking kilometers north of GRA on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and...

 province in Latium, and the “Umbria line” comprises wines produced in the Montecchio

Montecchio

Montecchio is a comune in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km south of Perugia and about 30 km northwest of Terni....

 and Orvieto

Orvieto

Orvieto is a city and comune in Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff...

area.