Frascati's white wines have been shipped to Rome since the second century BCE, when the Republic's legions returned from campaigns demanding the crisp Malvasia and Trebbiano pressed on the volcanic slopes above the city. The town sits at three hundred metres elevation on the outer rim of an extinct crater, its tufa cellars carved into the same porous stone that anchors the vines. By the Renaissance, every cardinal and banker maintained a villa here; the water was clean, the summer air ten degrees cooler than the Tiber basin, and the wine arrived at table within hours of harvest. Pope Paul III declared Frascati's vintage the official wine of the papal court in 1538, a designation that held until the denominazione di origine controllata system replaced ecclesiastical decree in 1966. Today the Frascati DOC protects thirty-three hundred hectares of vineyard across eight communes, all within the Castelli Romani regional park. The appellation requires a minimum seventy percent Malvasia Bianca di Candia or Malvasia del Lazio, with the balance made up of Trebbiano, Greco, and Bombino. The best producers ferment in stainless steel at controlled temperatures to preserve the wine's signature minerality, a flinty edge imparted by the volcanic subsoil. A handful of estates still maintain the traditional pergola training system, in which vines grow overhead on wooden frames, shading the fruit and slowing ripening. The oldest cellars extend thirty metres underground, their walls blackened by centuries of smoke from clay amphorae sealed with beeswax. A Frascati wine tour from Rome requires no advance logistics beyond a reservation; the town is twenty-three kilometres southeast of Termini station, reachable by direct train in thirty-three minutes or by car along the Via Tuscolana. Most vineyard visits include a walk through the estate's pergola rows, a descent into the tufa cellars, and a tasting of three to five wines paired with local porchetta, pecorino, and bread baked in wood-fired ovens. The tours operate daily from morning through early evening, with the majority departing Rome between nine and ten to allow time for both the vineyard tour and a seated lunch. Free entry to the town itself means you can explore the baroque Cattedrale di San Pietro, the Villa Aldobrandini gardens, and the central Piazza del Mercato without a ticket, though winery visits require advance booking and range from twenty to one hundred seventy euros depending on the estate and the menu.