TLC: The Lambrusco Chronicles

By 1983 Lambrusco, a true Italian original, had gone through an extreme makeover:

A classic dry, lightly sparkling (frizzante) Italian red wine had been turned into a super sweet, super fizzy white wine.

The "industrial" Lambrusco boom which had started in 1968 ended abruptly for various reasons in 1985.

Lambrusco was being 'replaced' by 'White Zinfandel' and 'White Wine Coolers'.

The Lambrusco bust had a devastating effect on the entire region of Emilia.

In 1985 Nicolas Belfrage publishes "Life beyond Lambrusco".

Yet, exactly ten years later (1995), the very first 50 cases of real (red, DOC, single vineyard, cork-finished, secco, frizzante (slightly fizzy), top-quality, limited production: 10,000 bottles) Lambrusco are imported into California and sold to two top restaurants in San Francisco (L'Osteria del Forno and Rose Pistola) but mostly to a private clientele in Los Angeles.

The following year (1996) 'True Lambrusco' is featured at Felidia, one of hottest NY's restaurants at that time. ("Lambruscos have been misrepresented by industrial versions that have the soda pop flavor they think Americans want."- Lidia Bastianich)

Slowly, but surely, many, many more top NY restaurants will follow over the next 6 years exclusively accomplished through marketing strategies developed by a small California specialty importer of Italian wines.

Matt Kramer was the very American wine writer to recognize the pleasures of true Lambrusco AND to actually write about it!

In 1996 he published the first ever great review about a 'True Lambrusco' in the LA Times. Still, not a single restaurateur or wine retailer in Los Angeles was willing to give authentic Lambrusco a chance.

A Los Angeles wine buyer of an up-scale grocery chain told us:

"I need real Lambrusco as much as I need a hole in my head." (The very same retailer continues to stock exclusively industrial Lambrusco.) At one of our many, many "Lambrusco Resurrection Tastings" (New York, 1998) throughout the country we were told by one of the largest US importers of Italian wine to see 'Big Night'* (1996): "It would help us to understand why "genuine Lambruscos will never make it in this country."

"Lambrusco? Thanks, but no thanks!" was the standard response from every US retailer, sommelier, importer, wholesaler, distributor, and wine writer throughout the USA for the next 10 years ("calls to many of the better wine retailers in and around Manhattan [to find a respectable bottle of  Lambrusco] produced little more than giggles." - Eric Asimov, New York Times).

In 1998 we introduced 'True Lambrusco' at symposiums in Seattle, Chicago and New York. The event was moderated by Burton Anderson. Twenty of the 21 participating US importers featured "in wines" like Amarone, Brunello, Barolo, and Super Tuscans --- ours was LAMBRUSCO SECCO! (We were told, that only a crazy person from California would run around with....Lambrusco.)

Against all odds our 'True  Lambrusco'  becomes 'famous' in NY and SF.

Our promotions via countless tastings throughout the USA (Boston, Aspen (Food & Wine Classics), Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, New York, Chicago (Spiaggia became the first and only restaurant to serve authentic Lambrusco in IL), Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.) were starting to pay off.

By 2005 our 'dry fizzy red' had been placed on wine lists of some of the most important restaurants in New York and San Francisco.

Nobody had thought that this was going to be possible. Nobody! Not another US wine importer - not even the producer of the Lambrusco.

Yet as a result of our NY placements - starting in 2006 - more and more authentic (and also more industrial/commercial) Lambruscos are finding US importers and their way into New York and the USA, thereby helping further to re-build the market for real and "not-so-real" Lambruscos.

In 2006, Eric Asimov (NY Times) and Jon Bonné (SF Chronicle) publish excellent articles on authentic Lambrusco and finally starting in 2009/2010 other food and wine writers and wine bloggers are beginning to take a closer look at real Lambrusco - one of the most enjoyable classic Italian red wines and a world original. (And Riunite adds TWO dry Lambruscos to the portfolio!)

Our 'True Lambrusco' placements at two top restaurants in Las Vegas opened eyes and helped to spread the word about real Lambrusco throughout the USA and the world: "The waiter presented me with the dark bubbly and I was spellbound. How exciting, something new! It was fizzy, slightly sweet, and rich with berry flavor. I loved it! (2007)"

Lambrusco's image had been rehabilitated by 2010 after it had been known as "the wine with the world's worst reputation" for 25  years (19985 -2010). All of this had been started and accomplished not by a famous PR agency with a "multimillion-dollar" advertising budget or the largest US importer of commercial  Lambrusco or one of the Italian  Lambrusco Consorzios***, but by three guys from California who had made it their mission to exclusively import top-quality, authentic, indigenous, completely unknown, unrated** Italian wines in 1991.

Today (2010), it's possible to say (without 'giggles'):  Here's to real Lambrusco, one of Italy's greatest red wines!

And after 15 years of "Lambrusco Research" (1995-2010) we are proud to introduce a truly artisanal dry Lambrusco:

Pronto: An authentic, true frizzante (pressure between 1 & 2.5 atm), top‐quality, small production (10,000 bottles), 100% estate-bottled, non-pasteurized ("cooked"/heated to 166 degrees F;  a very common treatment during the production of Lambrusco - even for top-of-the-line Lambruscos!!),  non-stabilized (neither by chilling nor by adding chemicals), secco (dry, 11% alcohol - authentic Lambrusco has to have a minimum of 10.5% alcohol by law) Lambrusco, hand-crafted by Paola Rinaldini, one of Emilia's top small Lambrusco estates (neither a co-op nor a "bottler" (= no Lambrusco holding tanks.)

Detailed time-line: TLC: The Lambrusco Chronicles.

For more information about Pronto, click here.

Noble Emilia. Rustic Romagna. Emilia Romagna - Italy's Culinary Capital?

Author: John Giebler

By a stroke of luck I ended up in Emilia-Romagna, an Eden of fine cooking and savory ingredients. I'd been living in France for nearly a decade and, while the food captivated me, each trip to Italy begged another.

Growing up in the U.S, I had an idea of Italy as a European state, but now I was discovering its infinite provincial diversity. The nation has millennia of history, but it's only been a unified country since 1861. Twenty individual regions weave a multicolored patchwork of provinces, cities, and villages: bygone kingdoms and feudal states.

In 2000 I landed a job as a tour guide with a company based in Forlì. No idea where that was. I hefted my world atlas onto the kitchen table and thumbed through the index: F ... For ... Forlì. Italy sculpts more of a leg than a boot on the map. Forlì lies in Emilia-Romagna: a broad expanse spreading across her thigh like a garter. The region takes its name from the Via Aemilia — the 160-mile ancient Roman road stretching east, straight as a tightrope from Piacenza to the Adriatic Sea.

The Apennines, Italy's mountainous spine, arch east then south from the Mediterranean Sea to form the territory's lower border. Slanting vineyards and soft grassy slopes smooth north into orderly orchards. Parcels of kiwi populate the flat Po River plain. Renaissance towers, medieval ruins, and cypress spires cap rolling hills. And wavy grids of silvery olive trees garnish the slopes.

Emilia-Romagna's cultural heritage embraces Parma's powerfully arched cathedral, Bologna's leaning brick towers, and sixth-century mosaics in Ravenna; once the Western Roman Empire's capital. Pellegrino Artusi, the father of Italian cooking, grew up in Forlimpopoli.

But Emilia and Romagna are one only on paper. In the eighth century, the Frankish King Pippin III pawned off the troublesome southeastern regions on the papacy. Like twins separated at birth, they matured into individual personas. Romagnoli are 'chicken-farming country bumpkins,' say the 'snooty, know-it-all' Emiliani.

Lambrusco is only 100% Lambrusco (the wine) when made from at least 85% Lambrusco (the grape)

The Hills of Castelvetro

True Lambrusco, Italy's most important varietal wine, is made from Lambrusco grapes.

As a matter of fact, Italian wine law stipulates that your bottle of True Lambrusco wine must be made from a minimum of 85% Lambrusco grapes.

Lambrusco is a typical example of a good relationship between a group of grapes and its territory: Fertile alluvial plain stimulate vigour, yield and characteristic quality traits of the vine.

How can you tell if you purchased a True Lambrusco or just a bottle of....red wine with bubbles?

The label of a True Lambrusco wine will list the words 'Lambrusco...DOC (or DOP)' or 'Lambrusco dell'Emilia IGT (or IGP) (Lambrusco Emilia IGT or IGP)'. If none of these particular definitions appear anywhere on the front or back label, you purchased a "red wine with bubbles" but not a bottle of True Lambrusco - even though the word 'Lambrusco' (the grape) may be listed on the label. Most true Lambruscos are blended with a maximum of up to 15% of Ancellotta, aka. Lancellotta, Malbo Gentile, Fortana, and/or Marzemino grapes - which are not Lambrusco grapes.

Confused?

Lambrusco is not only the name of a particular TYPE of wine but at the same time it is also the name of the grape that was used to make this type of wine.

Lambrusco (the type of wine) is a slightly fizzy (frizzante in Italian) red wine with high acidity and fresh fragrances, produced in a particular area of Italy. Specifically, in a region called Emilia Romagna even though the wine can only be made in Emilia and not in Romagna. Why? It's not only "the law" (DOC regulation) but also due to the special climate (continental) and special (very moist) soil of Emilia; another proof that there's a very strong relationship with a particular varietal and its territory.

WSJ: "Lambrusco may be one of Italy's most confusing wines."

Enjoyed reading the great article about true lambrusco in the Wall Street Journal. As a matter of fact, we can't read enough about this Italian original. To further 'un-confuse' and demystify lambrusco we would like to add the following personal comments, notes, corrections, and observations:

1. WSJ:  "...There are six different clones of the Lambrusco grape, with six different, multipart names, grown in subregions all over Emilia Romagna in the very heart of Italy. There's Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, home of the Grasparossa clone, where the wines are mostly big and dry. There's Lambrusco Reggiano, the largest region, which is also home to the famous cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano). It produces both sweet and dry wines, and mostly frizzante ones. And there's Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce - a clone said to resemble salami, in fact. Salamino wines tend to be simple and light...."

TL: Actually, there are 13 to 17 different indigenous Lambrusco grape varieties, not clones. Most Lambruscos are made from the following six: Lambrusco Salamino, Lambrusco Grasparossa, Lambrusco Sorbara, Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Monterrico. (More: http://www.lambruscoday.org/facts-or-fiction.html) Even though the wine region/state is called Emilia Romagna, Lambrusco cannot be made in Romagna - by law.

Grasparossa (lambrusco variety) di Castelvetro (a town in Emilia), Lambrusco Reggiano (Lambrusco from Reggio Emilia) and Salamino (variety) di Santa Croce (town) are zones, better known as DOCs (DOPs). The forth one, not mentioned in the story, is Sorbara (town and name of indigenous grape variety; named after town). While 3 of the DOCs have 'lambrusco grapes' in their denominations, Reggiano refers to the zone/region of Reggio Emilia. The number of Lambrusco DOCs is now at 8 to 12 (More: http://www.lambruscoday.org/facts-or-fiction.html).