Frascati has pressed grapes since the Roman Republic, when senators retired to hillside villas and cultivated Malvasia and Trebbiano on volcanic slopes that drained fast and ripened early. The town sits at 320 metres above sea level on the rim of an extinct volcanic crater, its tufa-stone foundations riddled with cellars that hold a constant 12°C year-round. By the sixteenth century, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had planted the terraces below Villa Aldobrandini, and Frascati became the Vatican's preferred table wine — light, dry, and transported to Rome in amphorae along the Via Tuscolana. The DOC appellation arrived in 1966, the first white-wine designation in Lazio, and today thirty-seven producers farm 1,200 hectares across the Castelli Romani plateau. A Frascati half day wine tour threads the narrow roads between stone estates and family-run cellars, most of them fourth or fifth generation. The landscape is terraced olive groves, chestnut woods, and rows of low-trained vines that follow the contour lines carved by ancient lava flows. Malvasia Bianca di Candia accounts for sixty percent of the blend in a classic Frascati Superiore, with Trebbiano Toscano and Greco Bianco rounding out the structure. The best bottlings are fermented in stainless steel to preserve the citrus-peel brightness and almond finish that define the style. Frascati Cannellino, a semi-sweet late-harvest expression, is rare outside the region and appears on tasting menus as a pairing for ricotta pastries and aged pecorino. The town itself is a working agricultural centre, not a resort village. Market day fills Piazza del Mercato with stalls selling porchetta, buffalo mozzarella, and olive oil pressed in Grottaferrata. The frescoed interior of Villa Aldobrandini is closed to the public, but the Baroque water theatre in its garden — a cascade of moss-covered nymphs and grottos — is visible from the belvedere behind the villa. Wine tourists book morning tours to catch the light on the vineyards and avoid the midday heat that settles over the plateau in summer. Most tastings include four to six wines paired with local bread, salumi, and cheese, and many estates offer a walk through the cantina where amphorae from the 1800s still line the walls. The return to Rome takes thirty minutes by regional train or forty by car along the Appia Nuova, making Frascati wine tours a practical half-day escape from the capital.