Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone

[1] The unusual name of the wine region dates back to a 12th-century tale of a German bishop traveling to the Vatican for a meeting with the Pope.

The 'wine scout' had instructions to write 'Est' (Latin for 'It is' or 'There is') on the door or on the wall of the inns he visited when he was particularly impressed with the quality of the wine they served so the bishop following on his trail would have known in advance where to make a stop.

At a Montefiascone inn, the prelate was reportedly so overwhelmed with the local wine that he wrote Est!

[2] While this tale has been widely repeated, with some variations (such as the event taking place in the 10th century[1] and/or involving a Flemish bishop,[3] attending the coronation of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor instead of meeting the Pope,[4] etc.

di Montefiascone has been widely repeated for centuries[5] and, though likely apocryphal, has served as a tourism draw for the region and gives some notoriety to the wine.

The legend has it that the servant was so impressed with the wine being served at a Montefiascone inn that he enthusiastically scrawled Est!

[5] While that is the basic outline of the story, over the centuries several variations have popped up that slightly change some details.

One of the more detailed retellings can be found in Tom Stevenson's Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia where he pinpoints the events to late 1110 or early 1111 when a 12th-century German bishop, Johann Fugger, was traveling to Rome for the coronation of Henry V as Holy Roman Emperor.

But Stevenson also reports that the bishop, himself, was also so impressed with the wines that he canceled the rest of his journey and stayed in Montefiascone until his death.

di Montefiascone received DOC status in 1966 and includes the volcanic soils encircling Lake Bolsena in the northern Latium region.

[2] According to DOC regulations (last changes approved on date 30-11-2011) the wine should come from grapes grown within the DOC area in the province of Viterbo and included in the administrative territory of the municipalities of Montefiascone, Bolsena, San Lorenzo Nuovo, Grotte di Castro, Gradoli, Capodimonte and Marta, harvested to a maximum yield of 13 tonnes/ha.

Locally, the wines are often paired with Roman cuisine such as fritto misto and deep-fried artichokes.