Lambrusco: are you willing to give it a try?
Lambrusco is a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest of Italian wine. You either love it or find it dreadful. But what kind of wine is it, really, and which one could you try?
In a nutshell: lambrusco is red wine with bubbles. Not as cheerfully dancing as rosé champagne, lambrusco always has a touch of melancholy alongside the cheerfulness. The fruit is dark and the fresh bubbles are accompanied by something rustic, thanks to the tannin. Lambrusco—the name refers to the grape (in many different varieties) it is made from—comes from Emilia-Romagna and has been drunk there for at least 150 years.
Lambrusco: delicious or not?
Strange bunch, those Romans, or is this often-misunderstood drink secretly actually delicious?
The love child of champagne and red wine
In America, the wine was promoted under the brilliant slogan ‘the love child of wine and champagne, an intoxicating mix of tannin and fizz’. Probably because of that Italian ‘fizz’, every summer there were a few lonely voices crying out in the wilderness that lambrusco was finally going to overtake prosecco in terms of hysterical popularity. You don’t have to have been living under a rock to know that this hasn’t happened to date. Apart from a few exceptions, lambrusco is made in the same way as most proseccos, by the way.
Cassis with alcohol
I still remember my first sip; I thought I was drinking cassis with alcohol. Very strange. And delicious? Meh, it wasn’t love at first sight. But today I’m going to try it again, nicely chilled, with a prosciutto di parma pizza, or with a large chunk of Parmesan, just as the Italians do. With its firm acidity, lambrusco pairs very well with saltier flavours. And since Italians have more or less the best taste in the world, lambrusco must surely be drinkable?
Modern and thirst-quenching
Wanna give it a try? Ask your favourite wine merchant about their favourite Lambrusco. My tip: go for an uncomplicated, fruity but not too sweet variety. I’m very curious to hear what you think of it!
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