Sparkling wine
The Lambrusco revival: why it is not sweet booze
The Lambrusco flows deep red and bubbly into the glass.
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It’s way too sweet, cheap booze, only tastes good on ice cubes with a slice of orange. That’s the prejudice. Lambrusco, the underrated wine from Emilia-Romagna. The winemakers from the regions in which the Lambrusco is protected prove that it can do something completely different.
The Lambrusco is known as a headache wine, far too sweet, only tolerable on many ice cubes and with a thick slice of orange. It can be quite different: fruity, but by no means sweet, rather dry. Deep red, almost purple and bubbly, it flows into the glass, the color is typical of Lambrusco. A wine made from the grape variety of the same name. Lambrusco is available in many variations, the Vitis database, which is maintained by the Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants, includes 18 Lambrusco grape varieties such as Lambrusco Salamini or Lambrusco Maestri.
The sparkling, fruity red wine is mainly produced around Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia. Only single-origin wine can be called Lambrusco. It is made into still wine, then yeasts are added to stimulate fermentation and later make it fizzy. Of course, the wines are also matured nicely, i.e. with 40 to 50 grams per liter of residual sugar. These wines are then exported en masse.
Lambrusco: deep red, dry and powerful
But the better and more interesting are the Lambrusco wines, which are made dry. With up to 15 g / l residual sugar. For example the Colli di Parma Lambrusco from the Lamorett wineryi. Winemaker Giovanni Lamoretti dedicated himself to Lambrusco in 2013, planted vines and bottled the first Lambrusco in 2018. The wine is deep red, fruity and yet not stingy with tannins. Or else the Lambrusco di Sorbara DOP from Cantina della Volta with 5 g / l residual sugar. The special thing about this is that the wine is not carbonated by a second fermentation in the pressure tank, but rather during the second fermentation in the bottle. The Lambrusco is expanded using the champagne method. That means it lies on its own yeast for 12 months. The result: fresh, fruity, with a fine perlage as you know it from champagne.
There are four DOC areas for Lambrusco (“Denominazione di Origine Controllata”, short: DOC, designation for origin-controlled wines), three of which are in Emilia-Romagna: The two most important Lambrusco di Sorbara and Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro and Salamino di Santa Croce. Another area is outside Emilia-Romagna: Lambrusco Mantovano in Lombardy.
Lambrusco is drunk with food
The wines from the Lambrusco di Sorbara and Lambrusco Grasparossa differ in their style. The wines from the DOC di Sorbara are elegant and known for their floral scent with aromas of orange blossom, cherries and violets. The ones from the DOC Grasparossa are powerful and dry, with aromas of blueberries and blackcurrants.
By the way, Italians don’t drink Lambrusco as an aperitif, but with food. Because the freshness that it brings with it goes well with the hearty dishes such as Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano from Emilia-Romagna.
Despite all the complexity: In the end, it is important to try things out and throw the prejudice of cheap booze overboard.