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| Villa di Corlo “Rolfshark” Lambrusco di Sorbara rosato 2024 Villa di Corlo “Rolfshark” Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro 2023 Sottoilnoce “Saldalama” Emilia IGT NV Sottoilnoce “Confine” Emilia IGT Terrevive “Stiolorosso” Vino Rosso dell ‘Emilia Frizzante NV |
| This week we’re tasting ice-cold Lambrusco, a fantastically food-friendly wine that dovetails perfectly with just the sorts of food we love to eat in Los Angeles, from birria to bulgogi. Lambrusco is a type of wine from Emilia-Romagna, and also a nominal grape family with as many as sixty different cultivars. These are some of the very oldest grape varieties cultivated in Italy today, with some dating to antiquity. Speaking of antiquity, I’ve worked with and enjoyed Lambrusco for many, many years, but also have accepted that it’s a wine that a certain demographic sadly eschews— mostly antique old farts my age or older, who labor under the false assumption that it’s always going to be soda pop sweet, and recall how they once unwittingly drank a bit too much of it in the early 70s and lost their lunch all over their parents’ velour-upholstered couch (not that there’s anything wrong with a well-wrought, sweet Lambrusco).
While this is certainly true of Riunite (IYKYK), it’s equally true that traditional Lambrusco is most often dry: none of the wines we’re tasting this week have appreciable residual sugar. The market for Lambrusco is changing, and now on any given day, six or eight customers ask for it without hesitation. Now, if you like to drink wine and remain open-minded to it, it’s possible to discover that a type of wine you once found repulsive is, on second or third thought, pretty damn delicious. Conversely, you might feel your gorge rising merely at the thought of a wine you once couldn’t get enough of. Could it be that, prior to this week’s tasting, you’ve only encountered lousy versions of Lambrusco, but that up ahead, there might be Land of Lit Lambrusco waiting for your delectation, if only you open yourself to experiencing it anew? Discovery and rediscovery make wine exciting, but if you only hew to the well-traveled road, how do you discover the one less traveled? We’re starting with two simple, fresh wines from Villa di Corlo, both varietally labeled: one made with the lightest member of the Lambrusco di Modena family, lambrusco sorbara; the other made from grasparossa, and is more medium-bodied and a bit tannic. Then, two wines from the irrepressible Max Brondolo of Sottoilnoce. One is a blend of the aforementioned sorbara and grasparossa, joined with the rare lambrusco di fiorano, which is hyper-local and a bitch to grow; the other is a made from a promiscuous field blend of various old Modenese varieties, co-harvested and co-fermented. To finish, a wine from the brilliant Gianluca Bergianti (with whom Max worked), more structured than the preceding wines. |