While attending the Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara, I had the opportunity to meet some amazing winemakers and taste a bunch of fabulous wines. Several stood out, but there is one that I feel has been overlooked by the US wine market. It’s time to show a little love for this wine, and doing so will undoubtedly improve your summer.
Lambrusco.
Now, some people might have a negative reaction to that word. (I had one early in my life to tequila… but that’s another story!)
Lambrusco. Wine writer Fiona Beckett wrote about lambrusco in The Guardian here (click the link or read my favorite excerpt below):
Beckett says, ” I don’t mean that lambrusco – the weedy, pissy kind drunk by students in the absence of anything better – but real lambrusco: deep crimson, frothy, and one of the great glories of Emilia-Romagna.”
Right! It’s NOT the swill you might imagine in your worst fears. REAL lambrusco is dry, fruity, red, bubbly, refreshing, low in alcohol- delightful in every way, and pairs wonderfully where you might want a red wine, you might wand a sparkling wine, but here you get the perfect marriage of both.
The first lambrusco I ever tasted was a simple, $12-16 bottle from Canali. I tasted this, and was thrilled.
Check out the brilliant color. Add fizziness, very dry fruit, crisp acidity. It’s very satisfying on the palate!
Later, I did a quick search to try and find it (two shops close to me in NYC carry it for about $15-16 per bottle, and was a little surprised. It had a score of 84 points. “Hmm,” I thought, “I felt this was an 88-92 pointer,” as my eye wandered down the page to see five awards in the last three years alone. As much as I like to think that I don’t care about scores, evidently they still have an impression on me. Until I realize that in this case, the score didn’t matter. I really enjoyed this wine, it was an ideal example of what my palate needed (that 50 or so other wines that day didn’t come close to).
Here’s a search from wine-searcher. Ignore the scores, look at the awards.
This summer, why not find a lambrusco you love. Serve this to your friends and neighbors, and watch the delight in their faces. If you play on social media, you’ll see a constant stream of people supporting the #Pay It Forward” movement.
Try this one, oenophiles!
Real Lambrusco. #Pay it forward.
You’ll be glad you did.
à votre santé!
Special thanks to Fiona Beckett, and here’s the entire link to her article in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/05/lambrusco-uk-wine-review-fiona-beckett
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