Lambrusco

Lambrusco is the name of a group of grape varieties rather than a single wine. It covers Lambrusco di Sorbara, Grasparossa, Salamino, Maestri, Marani, Montericco and several more, and they produce genuinely different wines in colour, acidity and tannin.

Four denominations matter. Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC comes from the sandy plain north of Modena around Sorbara, Bomporto and Bastiglia. Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOC comes from the clay hills south of the city. Salamino di Santa Croce DOC sits in the plain around Carpi and takes its name from the bunch shape, small and cylindrical like a little salami. Reggiano Lambrusco DOC covers the province of Reggio Emilia and supplied most of the export boom.

There are also Modena DOC, which permits blends across the province, Colli di Scandiano e Canossa, and Lambrusco Mantovano DOC, the only one outside Emilia, in the Mantua lowlands of Lombardy.

Nearly all Lambrusco is frizzante (lightly sparkling, 1 to 2.5 bar) at 10.5 to 12 per cent alcohol. Fully sparkling versions exist but are a minority. The colour runs from the pale pink of Sorbara to the near-black purple of Grasparossa, and the foam is pink or violet depending on the grape.

It depends entirely on which one you open, which is the whole point of the category.

Sorbara is pale cherry-pink, almost a rosé, with pink foam, violet and wild strawberry aromas, high acidity and a short dry finish. Grasparossa is deep purple with violet foam that clings to the rim, blackberry and plum on the nose, and real tannin that grips the gums, unusual in a fizzy wine. Salamino sits between them: full colour, red fruit, less acid bite than Sorbara.

Across all of them, a dry Lambrusco is tart rather than fruity-sweet, low in alcohol, and built to be swallowed rather than contemplated. If a bottle tastes jammy, stewed or sugary with coarse foam, it is either an amabile, a very cheap wine, or an old one.

Serve it cold, but not identically. Sorbara wants 8-10°C, Salamino 10-12, Grasparossa 12-14. Too cold and the tannin in Grasparossa turns rough; too warm and Sorbara goes flat and dull. No decanting, ever.

The traditional glass in Emilian osterie is a thick tumbler, and it still works. A medium white-wine glass shows the aromatics far better, and for a bottle-refermented Lambrusco it is the right choice. With those bottles, either stand them up for a few hours and pour in one go for a clear glass, or roll the bottle before opening to put the lees back into suspension, which is how it is drunk in the cellar.

At the table, its job is mechanical: acidity and bubbles strip fat and salt off the palate. That means gnocco fritto, tigelle, prosciutto di Parma, culatello, mortadella, salame di Felino, ciccioli and Parmigiano Reggiano at 24 months, then the heavy local dishes: baked pasta, erbazzone, bollito misto, zampone and cotechino with lentils. Outside Emilia it handles pizza, fried food, burgers and barbecued pork, which is why it came back into fashion in the United States.

In the kitchen it deglazes a risotto al Lambrusco, finished with Parmigiano, and poaches pears with sugar, cinnamon and clove, for which an amabile is the better bottle. A dry one fails with dessert, chocolate and blue cheese.

Lambrusco is not a keeper and does not gain anything by waiting. It is made to be drunk within one or two years of the harvest, and the vintage is on the label. Kept cool and dark it holds that window; standing or lying makes no difference with a crown cap. Left somewhere warm and bright, the fresh red fruit turns cooked and jammy and the bubble goes coarse and short-lived.

Once open, a pressure stopper in the fridge buys a day or two before the fizz flattens: the colour outlasts the bubble by some margin. Serving temperature varies by type. Sorbara wants 8 to 10°C (46 to 50°F), Salamino 10 to 12°C (50 to 54°F), Grasparossa 12 to 14°C (54 to 57°F). Too cold and the Grasparossa tannin turns rough; too warm and Sorbara loses its foam and reads flat. With bottle-refermented versions, stand the bottle upright for a few hours and pour in one movement for a clear glass, or roll it gently first to lift the sediment.

The denomination on the label does most of the work. Lambrusco di Sorbara, Grasparossa di Castelvetro and Salamino di Santa Croce each name a dominant grape and a tight zone; Reggiano and Modena allow blending across much wider areas. A bottle carrying no DOC, only the word Lambrusco with a geographical indication, is volume wine.

The second word to look for is the sweetness level: secco, semisecco, amabile or dolce. Secco sits under 15 grams of sugar per litre, amabile between 30 and 50, dolce above that. In Emilia the bottle on the table is secco. The sweet screwcap Lambrusco that built the name in America and Britain in the 1970s is a genuine category with its own audience, but it is not the wine Modenese drinkers mean, and it sells for a third of the price.

In the glass, Sorbara is pale cherry pink and nearly see-through, with pink foam, violet and wild strawberry. Grasparossa is dark purple, its violet foam clings to the rim, and it carries tannin you feel on the gums. Salamino sits between the two.

Lambrusco is easy to find and easy to get wrong, because the cheap sweet version still occupies most shelf space in the US and the UK. Two things on the label settle it.

First the denomination. Lambrusco di Sorbara, Grasparossa di Castelvetro and Salamino di Santa Croce name a grape and a defined zone; Reggiano and Modena allow blends across a much wider area. A bottle labelled simply Lambrusco with a regional indication is volume wine.

Second the sweetness word: secco is dry, under 15 grams of sugar per litre; semisecco off-dry; amabile 30 to 50 grams; dolce above that. For the classic pairing with cured meat you want secco.

Expect USD 12 to 22 for a good bottle, USD 20 to 30 for an artisan bottle-refermented one; GBP 9 to 16 and GBP 16 to 25. Producers worth knowing include Cleto Chiarli, Cavicchioli, Paltrinieri, Fattoria Moretto, Lini 910, Medici Ermete, and among the refermented bottles Camillo Donati and Vittorio Graziano. Vintage barely matters: always take the most recent one on the shelf, because this is a wine that gets worse with age, not better.

Castelvetro di Modena is where to start for Grasparossa: a hill town half an hour from the city, with a black-and-white chequerboard main square, the Torre delle Prigioni and vineyards on every slope around it. In September it holds the Sagra dell'Uva e del Lambrusco Grasparossa, a village festival rather than a wine event.

For Sorbara you go the other way, into the flat farmland between Bomporto and Sorbara, where the cellars sit along the road. Carpi, further north, is Salamino country and has one of the largest squares in Italy, Piazza dei Martiri, lined with fifty-two arcades.

Modena is the base: the Mercato Albinelli for salumi and Parmigiano, the traditional balsamic acetaie, and at Spilamberto the Consorteria dell'Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale with its museum. Reggio Emilia, forty minutes west, is the centre of the Reggiano zone.

Go in September, during harvest and the village festivals, or in November and December, when the osterie serve zampone, cotechino and bollito misto and the wine goes back to work.