With the perfect amount of acidity and fruitiness, Riunite Lambrusco is not just a crowd-pleaser around the world, but it’s also America’s #1 selling Italian wine (riunite.com). Our City Tonight (OCT) sat down with Antonella Pagnanelli (AP), the export manager for Cantine Riunite Wine Group, to talk about Italy‘s other bubbles, Lambrusco. We also chatted a little bit about Prosecco, which is a more commonly known wine from Italy.

OCT: Let’s first talk about the wine group and the winery itself which is very unique.

AP: The wine company, Cantina Cooperative Riunite, is a huge co-operative based in Italy within the Emilia Romagna area where it started 75 years ago. This co-op today consists of about 1,700 family-owned vine growers who are our shareholders and today it is actually the parent company of the largest Italian wine group, which includes lots of brands that are very strong here in Canada and brands that you are probably very familiar with.

OCT: Let’s talk about the entrance of Lambrusco, and particularly its popularity here in Vancouver. We first tried this wine while travelling in Emilia Romagna, but it was difficult to find Lambrusco on the shelves when we returned to Canada. But let’s first talk about the Prosecco, that you brought here today.

AP: Everybody knows Prosecco, it is a worldwide star. Machio is one of the biggest brands of Prosecco in Italy. When you travel to Italy you will find it everywhere. In Canada, not so much because this brand arrived a little bit late and the shelves were already crowded with other Prosecco brands. What I brought to you today is a wonderful Prosecco. The uniqueness of this brand is that it’s unlike other brands, and the winery has been making Prosecco since the day it was founded. What you are tasting today is Prosecco Treviso which is from the original area where Prosecco started. Over the years the area has expanded, and Treviso is the core or the beginning of it.

OCT: Let’s talk about the wine that is having a real renaissance here in Canada and that is Lambrusco.

AP: I always say that our company and our winery is Lambrusco Land and anyone is welcome to become a citizen. I say this because Lambrusco is not just a wine. it’s so much more. There are 12 different grape varietals and lots of different styles in terms of sugar content. You can go from off-dry to sweet and you also have three different styles of fermentation. 

Most Lambrusco is made in the Charmat Method, and Prosecco is made this way. This is the perfect method to extract the so-called primary fruit aromas of the grapes. You can also have Lambrusco made in the Champenoise Method like champagne. And thirdly, you can have Metodo Ancestrale (the Ancestral Method) which is bottle fermented. So, if you mix up all the grapes, all the styles, and all the different fermentation styles, you really end up with many Lambrusco wines that are so different from each other. But, they have one main thing in common and that is they are very easy to drink and very food friendly. We have a saying that they are a very gastronomic wine because the food pairing is infinite.

OCT: Let’s sample the Lambrusco you have brought for us to try and then we can talk about the food pairing that you would recommend with each.

AP: The first one you are going to sample is a Sorbara that comes from the Modena area. It is recognized by its lighter colour, and it almost looks like a rosé, but technically it is red. This is the more floral of the grapes of Lambrusco and I would definitely pair it with a seafood dish, especially if you add tomatoes and capers, or you can serve it with something spicy as Lambrusco is also wonderful paired with Thai Food.

The next wine we are going to try is the Grasparossa which is the darker colour of Lambrusco where you can feel and taste a little bit more of the tannins. This wine is semi-dry, but the acidity is so nice that it’s not at all sweet. It’s a wine that we pair with pasta like lasagna as well as with meat courses.

OCT: The last wine we are about to try today is the Butterfly Lambrusco. Tell us about this wine.  

AP: The last wine that we are going to sample is the sweetest in flavour of what we are sampling today and it is very easy drinking because of the sweeter style, and because it’s a sweeter wine, I’m offering it to you last. This is a great wine to have on the patio on a hot sunny day with friends as it’s definitely a summertime wine. It’s great to serve chilled when it’s hot outside and you just want to relax at the end of a work day.

OCT: What would you typically pair with this wine?

AP: This wine I would recommend that you can just enjoy on its own. The two previous wines you sampled earlier are appreciated more paired with the right foods. This wine I would recommend that you just enjoy it on its own.

On another note, I’d like to share with you that Vancouver was the first city in Canada to open their doors to embrace Lambrusco. With the recent trends of low alcohol consumption and fitness trends, this wine really fits into today’s popular market. It’s also a wonderful ingredient for any cocktail and we have lots of cocktail suggestions based on Lambrusco as an ingredient.

OCT: Thank you for sharing all this wonderful information, we look forward to our next purchase of what we sampled here today and share with our friends our newest favourite summer wine.