The Essential Wine Book by Zachary Sussman

Author:Zachary Sussman [Sussman, Zachary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2020-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

THE “REAL” LAMBRUSCO

The contrast between the artificial mass-produced Lambrusco that constituted America’s initial introduction to Lambrusco and the authentic renditions you’re likely to find in upscale stores and restaurants today couldn’t be starker. It’s like drinking your first glass of thirst-quenching, freshly squeezed lemonade after knowing nothing but the store-bought powder.

As always, the difference lies in the production details. On the one hand, there are the gigantic commercial cooperatives that bulk manufacture their product (because, let’s face it, that’s exactly what it is: a commodity) using the quick-and-easy Charmat method of secondary fermentation in enormous steel tanks. Then there’s the real Lambrusco, handcrafted by the area’s small growers according to the centuries-old metodo ancestrale, or “ancestral method,” whereby the wine derives its fizz on a microscale through a naturally occurring refermentation in bottle.

If you’ve never experienced it, this new (to us, at least) breed of refreshingly tart, dry, bottle-fermented Lambrusco will come as a revelation, signaling a back-to-the-future throwback to what the wines resembled before big business took over. Occasionally giving off a pleasant whiff of farmhouse funk and a hint of sourness, it combines all of the cherry-meets-blackberry juiciness and bright acidity of the best everyday Italian reds with a soft froth of fizz that goes down with dangerous ease.

Consumed by the boatload in the cafés and taverns of Bologna, where the locals know a thing or two about a good meal, the wine is custom-built to cut through grease and fat. Just crack open a freshly chilled bottle alongside a hot, gooey pepperoni pizza and see for yourself.

Essential Producers: La Stoppa, Denavalo, Cà de Noci, Vigneto Saetti, Vittorio Graziano, Quarticello, Paltrinieri, Camillo Donati, Alberto Tedeschi

THE WINE LIST

◆ Camillo Donati IGT Emilia “Il Mio” ($): A central figure in both the revival of authentic bottle-fermented Lambrusco and Italy’s wider natural wine scene, Camillo Donati cultivates his vines using organic and biodynamic practices, ensuring that only the best raw materials make it into this tart, slurpable frizzante (that’s Italian for “lightly fizzy”). Bottled unfiltered and closed with a crown cap, per local tradition, the wine often contains a haze of sediment—all part of the fun.

◆ Vittorio Graziano Lambrusco “Fontana dei Boschi” ($): Vittorio Graziano came to wine after initially working as an administrative accountant—a wise life choice if ever there was one. Today, he strenuously avoids the use of chemicals in his vineyard and raises all of his wines with the gentlest possible touch. His lightly sparkling red reveals the tannic grip and brambly, herbal complexity that gets entirely lost in the more conventional Charmat method versions of Lambrusco.

◆ La Stoppa “Ageno” IGT Emilia Bianco ($$): From one of Emilia’s orange wine pioneers, La Stoppa’s “Ageno” bottling spends three to six months macerating on the skins. This is always one of the most compelling macerated whites found outside of Friuli, combining tannic bitterness with a floral component (from the malvasia grape), fresh oregano, and burnt orange peel.

◆ Alberto Tedeschi “Spungola Bellaria” IGT Emilia Pignoletto ($): The little-known pignoletto grape is

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