I would say most people don't know what the real stuff tastes or looks like." Good or 'proper' or authentic Lambrusco has always been around and been made forever but only in recent years has it been easier to source in the UK. You can probably still get the odd bottle of dodgy stuff but the same can be said of any product. "It's not saturating the market as far as I am concerned - it went out of fashion years ago. Is the sweeter varieties of Lambrusco still saturating the market or are decent Lambruscos emerging? Or have there always been good Lambrusco that the majority of us were, until now, unaware of? Ruth has created the wine list for Rotorino, the new southern Italian inspired restaurant and wine bar by Stevie Parle. Making a comeback - a conversation with wine expert Ruth Spivey However, there are classic wines being produced by the likes of Francesco Bellei, who regularly pushes the boundaries with Lambrusco Sorbara, varying between lightly sparkling bottles and those that have undergone secondary fermentation, in the same way champagne is made, by adding more yeast into the bottle. Production nowadays is somewhat of an industrial affair, with the expedient tank method used by most producers. Sorbara is considered by many to have more body and depth of flavour while Salamino is the most aromatic of the Lambruscos.
Lambrusco Reggiano is still the most-sold variety, followed by Sorbara, Grasparossa and lastly Salamino. During the late '70s and early '80s a consortium or co-operatives managed to ship 3 million cases of Lambrusco Reggiano each year to America. It was Lambrusco Reggiano that dominated the world's supplies in the 1980s and thus gave everyone the impression that the entire category is sweet. Lambrusco Sorbara, Grasparossa and Salamino all tend towards a dry or off-dry flavour with pronounced acidity, while Lambrusco Reggiano is sweeter, thanks to the partially fermented must of the ancellotta grape, which DOC rules permit up to a maximum of 15% in the blend. While this may seem to be irrelevant red tape, the DOCS can reveal a lot about the flavour of the wine. There are four separate DOCS: Lambrusco di Sorbara Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Lambrusco Reggiano and Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce. As for the wine, modern Lambrusco is meant to be drunk young, and is principally produced by co-operatives. It's well known as a hard-working grape, yielding plenty of wine per acreage. Plantings of this robust grape variety can be found in the picturesque areas of Modena, Parma and Reggionell'Emilia. The area, in Emilia, is controlled by a DOC, meaning the vines have to be grown within a specified area for the wine to call itself Lambrusco. Lambrusco is named for the eponymous red grape variety grown in central Italy. It cuts the fatty richness of Bolognese food admirably." Lambrusco explained But the last few years have at last seen authentic Lambrusco, with its dry, crisp palate, returning to restaurant menus and supermarket shelves.Īs Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson wrote in their 7th edition of The World Atlas of Wine "there is something decidedly appetising about this vivid wine bursting with red-berry flavours and its unusual bright-pink foaming head. Then, as if overnight, the word Lambrusco was relegated to the domain of students, who relished in the cheaper, overly sweet varieties.
There was a time in the 1980s when America and western Europe couldn't get enough of the stuff, crates upon crates where shipped out of Italy and sold in huge quantities across the world. Usually served chilled, the wine reached its peak in the 1980s when sweeter varieties dominated the market. Lambrusco is a fizzy style of red wine from DOC (denominazione di origine controllata) vineyards in central Italy.
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