Freisa

FREISA

The Highly Prized “Fresearum”

There is no certain information about the origin of this variety, although some documents mention it from the 1500s. In the 1517 customs tariffs of Pancalieri, carloads of fresearum are recorded, considered of great value.

In 1692, Pietro Francesco Cotti wrote of having planted Freisa in a drainage ditch at Brichetto, in the municipality of Neive. Also, in the cantina of Lu in 1760, the purchase of Freisa cuttings is clearly mentioned, and in the same place, Freisa wine is spoken of. The first to describe it was Count Nuvolone in the “Georgic Calendar of the Agricultural Society of Turin”.

At the end of the 1880s it appeared as one of the leading Piedmontese varieties in the Ampelographic Album, compiled by a committee of experts chaired by Count Giovanni di Rovasenda, perhaps the most illustrious Piedmontese ampelographer of the 1800s, recognised also at the European level.
It adapts optimally to both clay and marly soils. Hence its wide diffusion across all the Piedmontese viticulture provinces, from the Alba area to the Asti area through to Chieri and Pinerolo.