I am from Italy. Till a few years ago in my region a wine called Fragolino was very popular.
It was produced using some varieties (or species) of grape originary of America.
Because of some stupid law for protection of "local products", the sale of this wine and of the grape is now outlawed in Italy. Farmers are allowed to grow it for personal use but strictly not allowed to sell it.
Also wines produced from crossbreds of European and American grapes are no longer allowed.
In shops it is now possible to find something called Fragolino, but it is just chemically flavoured wine!

Since I do not like a Big-Brother that decides what I can eat and drink, I would be pleased to search for such a wine during my next travel to USA and take some bottles back home.

The problem is that I do not know what can be the American name of such wine. Can anybody help?

I believed too that the reason was "too much methanol". It was the first thought that came to mind to explain this prohibition, but after making some research in Internet and in forums, this turned out to be an urban legend.
The actual reason for this law looks more like a misapplication of ecologism, protectionism, or clash of commercial interests.

Making more searches about the topic, I realized that this law cancelled many other wines from Europe (all the ones produced with grapes that don’t belong to the Vitis vinifera species).

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about protecting rare typical foods and cultivars in Europe, especially in Italy. The paradox is that these grapes and wines had since long become a typical local product for some Italian regions (in my area we had Fragolino and Clinto for example), but instead of being “protected” they have been eradicated.
Likewise, they could ban also potatoes, tomatoes and maize since they are not typically European...

Thanks to this forum and to the internet, I could find a lot of new info about these American-varieties wines, that now are become one of my hobbies.
I traveled to the States last month and I finally managed to buy some of them. I agree that a wine expert would find them of lower qualities than Vitis vinifera ones, but a "lower quality" or a "bad" taste (often a personal opinion) is not a good reason to make something illegal, else a lot of other thing should be made illegal as well (from Italian cars to British marmite, ;-) ).

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Originally posted by wdonovan

Is Brachetta di Acqii of the same family? I recently had some and it reminded me of this old thread about a wine that I never had (Fragolino).

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I was informed that the commercial sale of this wine was outlawed in 1994 because during the fermentation it is possible, to produce a poison. Now a lot of that was probably lost in the translation. However I think methanol level is what is meant by poison.

I have 60lts fermenting away for another two days before syphoning it off. I tried a glass of it last night and I'm impressed, however my neighbours who also make their own wine (a rose mixture of a red malvasia and the Uva Fragola Bianca) have warned it is not a wine for drinking everyday because of its affect on the liver, and that I should be aware of not fermenting too long as the wine will be too strong.

I too have been looking for information on Fragolino but not where to buy it but how to make your own.

There must be a special process to bring out the strawberry flavor and to control the muskiness. I have read from American books that in order to make a better wine from Labrusca grapes it is best to press the grapes to minimize contact with the bitter skin, is this correct? Where if making wine with vinifera you would crush and let it steep on the skin before pressing.

You should have a go at growing your own, spraying with verderame is not essential like it is with vitis vinifera. We have planted some Noah grapes and plan on making wine with them.