Hello wine talk and thank you admin for activating my account. I am been searching for a particular wine since my return from England about a month ago with no success so far. I can locate it, just not in a manner of anyone that can ship it to Tennessee. I contacted the vineyard through Facebook and they gave me a distributor in NY, they said they don’t receive this particular wine because it comes from a different vineyard of Caruso & Minini’s. I then contacted the vineyard again but they said they can’t ship it to a private individual and the few liquor/wine stores I’ve approached said they can’t get it either. If anyone can lead me to another possible avenue of US distributors for this wine, I would greatly appreciate it. Sorry for the long post, I look forward to learning more about wine from you guys and thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I was going to attach a picture of the label but I don’t see that option, the wine is Terre di Giumara Frappato Nerello Mascalese, Terre Siliciane by Caruso & Minini’s.
Thank you
Closest stores I see that carry it are in London. I’m not sure why anyone would try to ship an $8 Frappato though. My suggestion would be to try other Frappato you can find locally and maybe you’ll find another one you like.
How much do you want? If you’d be willing to buy a couple of cases, perhaps the distributor in NY would special order it. You’d have to work with a NY retailer, since the distributor can’t sell directly to consumers. That would take time, though – many months because they’d have to wait until another container was coming. And you’d still have the problem of getting it from NY to TN.
Particularly if you only want a bottle or two, or a few, it would probably be easier to acquire it in London and wait until you’re there or someone you know is visiting.
Rick - do like they suggested above. Try another. And then another. And then another. Then try a related or similar wine. And what you will eventually learn, after many years, is that no wine will ever be like the one particular wine you remember from a specific time.
You’ll be surprised to find out how many people got involved with wine from just such a quest. Best of luck!
And if you want to try some other good Frappatos then I highly recommend Cos and Occhipinti. I don’t know about Tennessee availability but they regularly show up in NYC.
Good luck!
Thank you all for the replies. I know I got wrapped up with this particular wine because it was the first red wine I actually truly enjoyed. I had basically stuck with whites and occasionally trying a different red. The two primary things I liked about this red was how smooth it was and no dry or bitter aftertaste. Thank you guys for the recommendations as well, I will continue my quest to find a red I love locally.
Thank you,
Rick
Rick, be careful walking on this slope. It’s really slippery. And the medical bills are insanely high. 
Frappato is, generally speaking, light and fruity with minimal tannin, but also not cloying or sugary. Tannin can be bitter, astringent, or woody so if these are characteristics that may well be what appeals to you. Amongst the bigger name grapes I’d say Pinot is the least astringent, particularly if you avoid versions with excessive oak treatment, as wood tannin is particularly drying IMO. For wines that you might enjoy, I’d suggest:
Beaujolais
Barbera (especially), Dolcetto and Freisa from Piedmont
Other Frappato wines from Sicily, as well as other Sicilian wines from Nerello Mascalese and Nero d’Avola (more tannic, but not so much in its entry level renditions) or blends
Red Burgundy
Oregon Pinot Noir
Loire valley reds, particularly the gamay and red blends more than the Cabernet Franc based wines
Maybe some softer Merlot that doesn’t see much wood
Blaufrankish and other Austrian reds tend to be rather low in tannin
If Rick hasn’t found many reds he likes, my guess is that he might not like high acid reds any more than he likes tannic/astringent ones. So I doubt that barbera, red Burgundy or the Loire reds would be good choices.
I wondered about the acid level actually, but since he didn’t mention it I didn’t exclude based on that criteria, particularly since he likes whites. There are certainly Barberas made in forward styles that aren’t too high in acid. Burgundy in riper years like '15 might work as well. The Loire suggestion is perhaps a bit of a long shot though!