To make it short....
"Est! Est!! Est!!!" is a semi-sweet
white wine with a small amount of
effervescence and mild,
fruity flavors, made from
trebbiano and
malvasia grapes. It's typical of the lands around the Italian town of
Montefiascone, north of
Rome.
Montefiascone has a long tradition of wine making (its name, "mons flasconis", means "mountain of the flask of wine"); a letter written by Pope
Innocenzo IV back in 1353 underscores the importance of
wineries in the economy of those lands.
"Est" is
Latin for "Is", so the name of the wine is "Is, is, is".
I am not making this up.
According to the
legend, in 1110 a German
bishop named
Giovanni Deuc (whose name is variously spelled as Johannes Defuk or Johan
Fugger) was travelling to Rome for the coronation of
Henry V.
Since he loved good wine, he instructed his
servant Martino to travel ahead of him, stopping at every
tavern to sample the cellars. Martino would indicate to his master the best places where to stop by writing the word "est" on the
door, meaning that "(the wine) is (good)".
When the bishop reached Montefiascone, he was delighted to read "Est! Est!! Est!!!" on the door of the tavern. He apparently drank too much of that excellent wine, since he died there and on his
tombstone you can read the
epitaph "Per il troppo EST! qui giace morto il mio signore Giovanni Deuc" ("Because of too much Est! here lies dead my lord Giovanni Deuc").
Every August the town commemorates the death of the bishop with a festival where the "Est!" flows freely.