The name of a DOC area located in Italy’s LATIUM region, northwest of Rome near Lake Bolsena. According to legend, a twelfth-century German bishop on his way to Rome sent his servant ahead to identify places where wines were particularly good. When the servant found one, he was to identify it by writing the word Est (Latin for “it is”) on its wall. The servant apparently found the wine at a tavern in Montefiascone to be so fantastic that he enscribed the enthusiastic Est! Est!! Est!!! on the wall. According to the story, the bishop (who apparently agreed with his servant’s opinion) never left Montefiascone. It produces a light, DRY white wine from TREBBIANO, Procanico, and MALVASIA grapes. The wine is generally viewed as quite ordinary—certainly not worth all the exclamation points.