Another type of bubbly wine that is just not that popular with or familiar to most consumers is Lambrusco. Both a type of grape and a style of wine, Lambrusco is a frizzante (lightly fizzy) red wine and are known to have a “young” flavor profile, and has differing levels of sweetness. Here was just one bottle from this category that I tasted:

Alfredo Bertolani Lambrusco 2009 Granarossa Reggiano DOC

The short:

1. flavors and aromas seemed pretty characteristic of this style of wine…at least to me. Let me be clear, I’ve only ever had two, maybe three, types of Lambrusco up to this point. I really need to continue hunting these down to try out
2. overall, the label style is pretty much on the “normal” side of things, but that’s to be expected of exported wines
3. unclear on their website if they have a tasting room/salon to visit in Italy…wouldn’t it be nice, though? Let’s take a moment to dream about it…
4. As I mentioned before, Lambrusco just isn’t a well-known type of wine. Part of that, in my opinion, is that we’re not used to drinking “young” wine that is also low in alcohol (11%), but we should be trying this kind of thing out. Easy to drink, light, fun, and easy to pair with foods.

The judgement: 3+ out of 5. I liked it, I didn’t think this particular bottle was magical on my first tasting of it, but at $13 for the bottle, it’s not anything painful to spend a few dollars on to try out if you’re ready to deviate a bit. Stay tuned for future bottles, and we’ll see what we stumbled across.

The nerdy notes:

• Showing a pretty ruby red color w/ a maroon outer ring, not totally filtered due to slight opaqueness, no immediate visible bubble stream like you’d expect w/ sparkling wines
• Nose: “gamay”/young nose, slight hint of roses, blueberry and lingonberry
• Taste: slight frizzante on the tongue, nice balance, red fruits, slight “grapey” note at one point, good mouthfeel, lots of jammy/preserves characteristics like blueberry jam, long finish

No, wait. Let’s not call it a “resolution”, because resolutions are too easy to break. Let’s call it Bubbly Goals! When most of us think about selecting a bottle of bubbles, there are some typical go-to names that pop-up, such as Mumm, Korbel, Gloria Ferrer, and Freixenet to name just a few. Why is that? Because it’s what we’re used to. But what about bubbles that come from alternate wine regions in the U.S., or even sparkling wines that come from other countries? There’s a host of them, and my recommendation is to try any from these REGIONS:

• Cava (Spain)
• Prosecco, Asti or Lambrusco (Italy)
• Espumante (Portugal)
• Sekt (Germany)
• Pezsgo (Hungary)

And don’t forget all the alternate STYLES of sparkling:

• Natural
• Extra Brut
• Brut
• Extra Dry/Extra Sec
• Dry/Sec
• Demi-Sec
• Sweet

Finally, a sparkling wine doesn’t HAVE to be made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Muenier. Why not try something made with:

• Muscat/Moscato
• Lambrusco
• Syrah
• Riesling
• Pinot Blanc
• Gamay
• Gruner Veltliner
• Blaufrankisch

What you should do now is select a bottle or two that deviates from your comfortable path, be sure to report back here about what you enjoyed, and where you found it so others can try it out. What you shouldn’t do is feel overwhelmed by all the options. Your best bet is to hit your local bottle shop first, and then fall back onto a larger chain store if time is running out. There are so many kinds of bubbly, so asking someone that works at the shop for a recommendation will help you go a long way. I’ll be posting my thoughts on a couple of bottles shortly, and look forward to your comments here.

What a wonderful way to kick-off our wine deviance…with bubbles!