From the atlas
Le Fraghe
At A Glance
Producer: Le Fraghe Winemaker: Matilde Poggi Location: Cavaion Veronese, province of Verona, Veneto, Italy Appellation: Bardolino DOC Core Grapes: Corvina, Rondinella, Garganega Farming: Organic (certified since 2009), hand harvest Cellar: Stainless steel and cement; no oak First Vintage: 1984
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The Producer
Matilde Poggi farms Corvina, Rondinella, and Garganega on the eastern shore of Lake Garda and has bottled wine under her own label since 1984. Before she started, the family sent their grapes to her father's brother, who ran his own winery. That arrangement ended with her first harvest.
The estate sits in Cavaion Veronese, inside the Bardolino DOC, a light-red appellation that sits between the lake and Valpolicella and has rarely drawn the kind of serious-collector attention its eastern neighbour commands. Poggi stayed there. She farmed organically, certified in 2009, and built a range that runs from an early-drinking red through a pale rosato, a single-parcel clos bottling, spontaneously fermented cement wines, and a varietal Garganega white. The estate name comes from the wild strawberries, fraghe in the local Venetian dialect, that grow among the vines.
Poggi went on to lead FIVI, the federation representing independent winegrowers across Italy, and then CEVI, its European counterpart. The grower from Bardolino became the voice of independent winemaking across the continent.
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Place
Bardolino DOC occupies a strip of the Veneto along the eastern bank of Lake Garda, in the province of Verona. To the west is the lake itself; to the east, the hills of Valpolicella begin. The appellation covers both a still red wine and its pale rosato counterpart, Bardolino Chiaretto.
The proximity of Lake Garda moderates temperatures through the growing season, cooling nights and extending ripening. The soils carry glacial material left when the glaciers that carved the lake retreated, producing a mix of schist, moraine, and mineral-laden subsoil. That combination points Corvina toward lighter body, bright acidity, and red-cherry fruit rather than the darker, richer profile of the Valpolicella hills to the east. Rondinella provides floral lift and colour support. Garganega, grown for the white Camporengo, brings waxy texture and almond-edged fruit on the same glacial base.
Bardolino reds are typically served lightly chilled. They are built for drinking relatively young, with the kind of acidity that keeps them lively at the table rather than demanding cellar time.
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Soil And Site
The vineyards at Loc. Colombare, Cavaion Veronese, sit on glacial schist deposited during the formation of Lake Garda. The soils are mineral-rich and relatively light, favouring aromatic freshness and acidity over concentration. The lake's proximity tempers the Veneto heat, producing ripeness without losing the acid line that defines the lighter Bardolino style. No vineyard elevation, planting density, or yield figures have been published by the estate.
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Story
The Poggi family grew grapes in Cavaion Veronese for at least a generation before Matilde made the first Le Fraghe wine. Her father sold the fruit in bulk to his brother's winery. When Matilde took over in 1984, she changed the end point: the grapes stayed on the property, and the wine carried her name on the label.
That decision fixed the course of everything that followed. Estate-grown grapes meant accountability for the vineyard. Organic certification, achieved in 2009, extended that accountability to the soil and the cellar. Hand harvesting became the norm. The range expanded from the foundational Bardolino and Chiaretto into more specific territory: Brol Grande, a single-parcel bottling from a walled vineyard enclosure, and the Traccia wines, spontaneously fermented in cement from selected plots, which represent the furthest point in Le Fraghe's direction away from conventional volume production.
Poggi's credibility within that independent-winemaking community eventually brought her to a larger platform. She led FIVI, the Italian federation of independent winegrowers, and then CEVI across Europe. The Bardolino address stayed the same throughout.
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Vineyards And Cellar
All grapes come from estate vineyards. Harvest is by hand. The farming is organic, certified since 2009.
In the cellar, Poggi works without oak throughout the range. The entry Bardolino and the Ròdon Chiaretto both ferment in stainless steel, preserving the aromatic directness of Corvina and Rondinella without adding weight. For the Ròdon, the varieties are vinified separately, macerated on skins for six to eight hours at cool temperature, then matured on fine lees in stainless steel until spring, giving the wine some texture alongside its pale colour.
The Traccia di Bianco and Traccia di Rosa go further: both ferment spontaneously using ambient yeasts in cement vessels, from selected vineyard plots. Cement holds temperature evenly without the reductive risk of sealed stainless steel, and the spontaneous fermentation produces a less linear aromatic profile than selected-yeast wines.
Camporengo, the varietal Garganega, is whole-cluster pressed without destemming, fermented at 17 degrees Celsius, and kept on fine lees in 50-hectolitre stainless steel tanks until the following spring. Lees contact in that volume adds roundness without masking the grape's waxy, almond-flecked character.
Brol Grande, the single-parcel Bardolino, follows the same no-oak, stainless approach as the entry red but draws on fruit from a single walled enclosure, producing more concentration and site clarity than the blend.
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Wines
The range divides cleanly by grape, method, and ambition.
Le Fraghe Bardolino is the entry red: 80% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, fermented in stainless steel and released for early drinking. The colour is pale ruby, the body is light, and the tannin is low enough to serve the wine slightly chilled. Red cherry, a little dried herb, clean acidity.
Ròdon, Bardolino Chiaretto is the pale rosato made from the same Corvina-Rondinella grapes. The production method splits between saignée, bled from the Bardolino fermentation, and direct pressing. Skin maceration runs six to eight hours at cool temperature before fermentation in stainless steel. Lees ageing continues until spring. The wine is dry, pale salmon in colour, with aromatic lift from the cool ferment and a little body from the maceration.
Brol Grande is a single-parcel Bardolino. Brol is the Venetian dialect word for a walled vineyard enclosure, what the French call a clos. The fruit comes from one delimited plot, giving more concentration and definition than the entry blend.
Traccia di Bianco and Traccia di Rosa both ferment spontaneously in cement from selected estate plots. The method produces wines that are less immediately aromatic than the stainless-steel range but gain complexity from the ambient-yeast fermentation and the even temperature of the cement vessel.
Camporengo is a varietal Garganega, the grape more commonly associated with Soave to the east. Whole-cluster pressed, fermented at 17 degrees, aged on fine lees through winter in 50-hectolitre tanks. Camporengo is full-bodied and harmonious, with sustained aromas through the finish.
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In The Glass
The Bardolino is light, dry, and direct. Pale ruby in the glass. On the nose, ripe red cherry and a little violets, with a faint herbal note from the Rondinella. In the mouth, the body is lean, the tannin barely registers, and the acidity carries the fruit cleanly through a short finish. It drinks well at cellar temperature or slightly chilled.
The Ròdon Chiaretto is pale salmon, dry, and more aromatic than its colour suggests. Cool fermentation gives fresh red fruit and a light floral note; the maceration adds a whisper of texture that lifts it beyond a simple pressed rosato. The lees ageing through spring rounds the mid-palate without adding weight.
Camporengo smells of white peach, fennel seed, and something waxy, the signature the Garganega grape carries on mineral soil. In the mouth, the lees contact fills the mid-palate, and the acidity draws the wine to a clean, slightly bitter almond finish. It is the most structured wine in the range and the one that rewards a year or two in bottle.
The Traccia wines are quieter on the nose but more complex in the mouth: the spontaneous fermentation and cement vessel produce a rounder, less linear texture than the stainless-steel bottles, with a faint yeasty depth beneath the fruit.
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A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Ròdon Bardolino Chiaretto. It is a pale, dry rosato made from Corvina and Rondinella, the same grapes as the red Bardolino, but drawn off early and macerated cool before a long lees rest in stainless steel through winter and into spring. The wine is pale salmon, dry, and lively, with fresh red-cherry fruit, a light floral note from the Rondinella, and enough texture from the skin contact to hold the mid-palate. It is the clearest demonstration of what Corvina and Rondinella do when the cellar does not intervene with oak or extended maceration: aromatic, fresh, easy to pour again. The Bardolino appellation sits between Lake Garda and Valpolicella. One bottle tells you more about the estate and the place than the entry red alone.
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Anecdote
Matilde Poggi started Le Fraghe in 1984 in an appellation that the serious-wine trade had largely moved past. The grands crus were elsewhere. Bardolino sold on price and volume. She farmed organically, harvested by hand, and bottled everything from her own estate. Over the following decades, that stubborn local focus built a reputation within Italy's community of independent growers, and she was elected president of FIVI, the federation that speaks for independent winegrowers across the country. From there she went on to lead CEVI, the European body that groups those national federations together. A grower whose address on the label said Cavaion Veronese, Bardolino, had been chosen to represent the case for independent winemaking across the continent. The appellation on the bottle did not change.
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Final Word
Le Fraghe is a grower-winemaker estate built inside an appellation that the fine-wine market has historically undervalued. Matilde Poggi's decision to bottle her own fruit in 1984, rather than sell it in bulk, is the foundation every wine in the range sits on. Organic farming, no oak, and a range that climbs from early-drinking Bardolino through site-specific and spontaneously fermented bottles: the shape is coherent. The Ròdon Chiaretto and the Camporengo are the two bottles most likely to surprise a buyer who comes in expecting simple lake-country wine.
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Sources
- https://fraghe.com/welcome
- https://fraghe.com/wine-catalog
- https://www.polanerselections.com/producers/le-fraghe/
- https://fraghe.com/camporengo-garganega
- https://fraghe.com/rodon-bardolino-chiaretto
- https://fraghe.com/le-fraghe-bardolino