Bubbly Resolutions: Part 3
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:
- 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
- overall, the label style is pretty much on the “normal” side of things, but that’s to be expected of exported wines
- 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…
- 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
Pass this moment of deviance along to others...
Terrific choice! Congratulation for finding, trying and blogging about a real (!) Lambrusco (alcohol min: 10.5%) from a quality producer.
The important word on the label is “secco” which describes an authentic Lambrusco (quality may vary) that may be bone- or off-dry. This type of Lambrusco is (still) almost exclusively consumed in the area of production (Emilia) as it goes great with pizza, pasta, salumi, meat (bbq, burgers, etc).
Lambrusco may be labeled ‘dolce’ (very sweet), ‘amabile’ (sweet), ‘semisecco’ (off-dry), or ‘secco’ (bone-dry to off-dry). Almost all ‘dolce’ and ‘amabile’ versions are destined for export.
If you can’t find any ‘style/sweetness’ descriptions on a Lambrusco label, rest assured, it most likely will be extremely sweet (…and an industrial version).
‘Grasparossa’ is the name of one of 13 (maybe 17 – see: http://www.lambruscoday.org/facts-or-fiction.html) different Lambrusco grape varieties. (Most Lambruscos are made from 6: Salamino, Sorbara, Grasparossa, Maestri, Marani, and Montericco.)
Wishing you lots of fun exploring other ‘secco & red’ lambruscos!
PS: Lambrusco secco is on its way to become very popular. Your terrific blog is helping to put it on the map and tables.