Lambrusco is the name of both a red
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
grapeA grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil...
and an
Italian wineItalian wine is wine produced in Italy, a country which is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Etruscans and Greek settlers produced wine in the country long before the Romans started developing their own vineyards in the 2nd century BC...
made principally from the grape. The grapes and the wine originate from four zones in
Emilia-RomagnaEmilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of 20,124 km² and about 4.3 million inhabitants.- Geography :...
and one in
LombardyLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region...
, principally around the central provinces of
ModenaModena is a city and a comune on the south side of the Po valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
,
ParmaParma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it. It is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, Reggio nell'Emilia, and
MantuaMantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century. These receive the waters from the Mincio, which descend from Lake Garda...
. The grape has a long winemaking history with archaeological evidence indicating that the
EtruscansEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
cultivated the vine.
Lambrusco is the name of both a red
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
grapeA grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil...
and an
Italian wineItalian wine is wine produced in Italy, a country which is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Etruscans and Greek settlers produced wine in the country long before the Romans started developing their own vineyards in the 2nd century BC...
made principally from the grape. The grapes and the wine originate from four zones in
Emilia-RomagnaEmilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of 20,124 km² and about 4.3 million inhabitants.- Geography :...
and one in
LombardyLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region...
, principally around the central provinces of
ModenaModena is a city and a comune on the south side of the Po valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
,
ParmaParma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it. It is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, Reggio nell'Emilia, and
MantuaMantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century. These receive the waters from the Mincio, which descend from Lake Garda...
. The grape has a long winemaking history with archaeological evidence indicating that the
EtruscansEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
cultivated the vine. In
Roman timesAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, the Lambrusco was highly valued for its productivity and high
yieldIn agriculture, crop yield is not only a measure of the yield of cereal per unit area of land under cultivation, it is also the seed generation of the plant itself, i.e. one grain of wheat produces a stalk yielding three grain, or 1:3...
s with
Cato the ElderMarcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, surnamed the Censor , the Wise , the Ancient , or the Elder , to distinguish him from Cato the Younger...
stating that produce of two thirds of an
acreThe acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre....
could make enough wine to fill 300
amphoraAn amphora is a type of ceramic vase with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body. The word amphora is Latin, derived from the Greek amphoreus , an abbreviation of amphiphoreus , a compound word combining amphi- plus phoreus , from pherein , referring to...
s.
The most highly-rated of its wines are the frothy, frizzante (slightly sparkling) red wines that are designed to be drunk young from one of the five Lambrusco
denominazione di origine controllataDenominazione di origine controllata is an Italian quality assurance label for food products and especially wines . It is modelled after the French AOC...
(DOC) regions: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco Reggiano, and Lambrusco
MantovanoThe Province of Mantua is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua.-Communes:It includes 70 comuni , ranging in area from Viadana, with 102.19 km², to Mariana Mantovana, with 8.81 km²....
. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Lambrusco was the biggest selling
importAn import is any good or service brought in from one country to another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade. It is a good that is brought in from another country for sale. Import goods or services are provided to domestic consumers by foreign producers...
wine in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. During that time the wine was also produced in a white and
roséA rosé wine has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques.-Skin contact:...
style made by limiting the
skin contactMaceration is the winemaking process where the phenolic materials of the grape— tannins, coloring agents and flavor compounds— are leached from the grape skins, seeds and stems into the must. The term is usually used in reference to wine, but is sometimes used with other drinks, such as...
with the
mustMust is freshly pressed fruit juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace; it typically makes up 7%–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must is the first step in wine-making...
.
Grape
The Lambrusco grape has shown itself prone to developing several clones and sub varieties to where there is no one singular "Lambrusco grape". The most commonly found clones are the Grasparossa, Maestri, Marani, Monstericco, Salamino and Sorbara. The grape vine are often trained high above the ground to prevent the development of
mildewMildew refers to certain kinds of mold or fungus. In Old English, it meant honeydew , and later came to mean mildew in the modern sense....
. Historically the vines were trained to climb up
poplarPopulus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood....
trees. The grape itself is not particularly sweet but many of the sweet Lambrusco are made by either partial
fermentationThe process of fermentation in wine is the catalyst function that turns grape juice into an alcoholic beverage. During fermentation yeast interact with sugars in the juice to create ethanol, commonly known as ethyl alcohol, and carbon dioxide...
or with the addition of the sweeter
AncellottaAncellotta is a wine grape variety mainly grown in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, but also in some other parts of north Italy, and in south Switzerland...
grapes to the blend. When not fermented sweet, the Lambrusco grape is capable of producing a dry wine with
strawberryFragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. There are more than 20 described species and many hybrids and cultivars. The most common strawberries grown commercially are cultivars of the Garden strawberry...
notes and a slight bitter finish.
By the end of the 20th century, ampelographers had identified over 60 varieties of Lambrusco scattered throughout Italy including-
PiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km
2 and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the so-called Occitan Valleys...
,
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
and the
VenetoVeneto , is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice....
. The most widely planted variety is the Salamino clone.
Italian wine
Although traditional Lambrusco is an almost entirely cork-stopped, dry (secco) red wine, the Lambrusco Reggiano DOC is also used to make
amabileThe sweetness of a wine is defined by the level of residual sugar in the fermentation process.Residual sugar is the measure of the amount of sugars that remain unfermented in the finished wine.-History:...
(slightly sweet) and dolce (sweet) versions of Lambrusco through use of up to 15 percent of the Ancellotta grape. Sweet Lambrusco wine became hugely popular in the United States in the late 1970s-1980s when over 3 million cases were exported there each year. The first dry, cork-finished, limited production DOC Lambrusco was introduced in the United States in 1995 (Medici Ermete, Lambrusco Salamino DOC 'Concerto' 1994, 11.5%
ABVAlcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage...
) . The wine is noted for high acidity and berry flavors. Many of the wines now exported to the United State include a blend of Lambrusco from the different DOC and is sold under the
Indicazione Geografica TipicaIndicazione geografica tipica is the second of four classifications of wine recognized by the government of Italy. Created to recognize the unusually high quality of the class of wines known as Super Tuscans, IGT wines are labeled with the locality of their creation, but do not meet the...
(IGT) designation
Emilia.
The wine is rarely made in a "champagne" style. It is typically made using the Charmat process where a second fermentation is conducted in a pressurized tank.
Wine regions
- Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro- The smallest wine producing region located south of the town of Modena. The region is home to the Grasparossa clone of which the DOC requires 85% of the wine to be composed of. The wine of this region is typically dry and full bodied with a deep purplish-red coloring. The Grasparossa clone produces the most tannic Lambrusco.
- Lambrusco Montovano- The only Lambrusco region outside of Emilia-Romagna, in the Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region...
region. This style is typically dry but some semi-dry styles are also made.
- Lambrusco Reggiano- The largest producing region of Lambrusco and the source of most of the export
In economics, an export is any good or commodity, transported from one country to another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade. Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic producers. Export is an important part of international trade...
ed DOC designated wines. The 4 clones of Lambrusco grape that can be used are Maestri, Marani, Monstericco and Salamino. Up to 15% of added Ancellotta grapes are permitted in the DOC as well. The sweet versions of the wine are typically in the light bodied frizzante style while the drier wines are more full bodied and darker in color.
- Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce- Located west of the village Sorbara, the wines of this region must be composed of at least 90% of the local Salamino clone. The wines are typically light in color and body with a frizzante style being both made in both semi-sweet and dry styles. The clone gets its name from the resemblance of the grape clusters to a sausage
A sausage is a prepared food, usually made from ground meat , ground pork fat such as fatback, salt, and spices . Typically the sausage is formed in a casing. Traditionally, sausage casings are made of animal intestines, though now some casings are synthetic...
of salamiSalammi is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried. Historically, salami has been popular among Italian peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to a year, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent supply of fresh meat...
.
- Lambrusco di Sorbara- Located north of Modena near the village of Sorbara, the Sorbara clone of Lambrusco is generally regarded as the highest quality clone producing the most fragrant wines. It has some similarities to the Salamino clone but produces a darker and more fuller bodied wine. The color can range from a deep ruby to a purplish hue. In this wine region only the Sorbara and Salamino clones are permitted in the DOC designated wine with at least 60% needing to be from the Sorbara. Along with the Salamino clone, the Sorbara varieties tend to produce the most acidic wines. One of the reasons why this clone tend to produce the highest quality Lambrusco is the tendency of the vine to drop its flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
s which reduces yields and concentrates flavors.
Other regions
In
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
a number of cheaper bottled and
box wineA box wine is a wine packaged as a Bag-In-Box. Such packages contain a plastic bladder protected by a box, usually made of corrugated fiberboard.-History and culture:...
s are produced by Australian vineyards and sold as "Lambrusco". They are typically medium-sweet, around 10%
ABVAlcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage...
and styled as an "easy drinking" product. In
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
, the Maesini clone accounts for several hundred planted
hectareA hectare is a unit of area equal to , or one square hectometre , and commonly used for measuring land area....
s.
External links