March ...
It’s a beautiful rainy Spring day. A perfect ray of sunshine for this day, Lambrusco. Why you ask? Why Not!! Reunite is a thing of the past, its time to rediscover this gem of a Wine. Chill it down and enjoy that fizzy red Italian gem.
As you will see below, we represent the Fuso 21 project, so please explore the other wines that we stock here at VWM. but our focus today is the Lambrusco.
Denny Bini
Country: Italy
Region: Emilia-Romagna
In case you hadn’t noticed, Emilia, the land of Lambrusco, has a revolution brewing (or fermenting, often in bottle). After too many years of industrially-produced mediocrity, Emilia is now home to a small but growing cell of artisanal producers who are farming carefully and returning to the metodo ancestrale of their grandfathers: secondary fermentation in the bottle, without disgorgement. Denny Bini is one of the humble heroes of this renaissance-revolution. He makes 6000 bottles per year from a single hectare of organically-farmed vineyards. Ponente 270 is the sparkling red and is mostly Grasparossa. Rosa dei Venti is the sparkling rosato (Grasparossa and Malbo Gentile). Levante 90 is the sparkling white wine, made from Malvasia. All three are bottle-fermented. Denny also makes our FUSO21 Lambrusco dell’Emilia (a.k.a. the Festa! Label) from practicing organic vineyards from family and friends.
Fuso 21 Project
Project FUSO21: regional, terroir-driven, daily drinkers, from farmers we know here in Italy – from their vineyards to your table. These are the wines you’ll find in a good trattoria when traveling in Italia made from the native varieties that the locals drink. FUSO21 wines are vinified in cement or steel, lightly or not filtered, and delicious.
The project connects growers in small towns throughout Italy to folks just like us who don’t want industrial plonk for daily drinkers.
Many of us have traveled to Italy and come back nostalgic – and thirsty – for those delicious local regional wines that we drank there. Here’s our chance to metaphysically rub elbows with the locals again. These are authentic daily drinkers, vini quotidiani — no tank farms or factory-made wines.
Keeping true to vini quotidiani, we choose deliciousness over complexity and polish. These are wines to drink by themselves, or to sip away with some olives as an aperitivo while cooking. Of course, they are really happy on your dinner table too. What you don’t drink (white *or* red), throw in the fridge and bring out the next night.
We find that fermentation and aging in concrete lets a wine’s grape variety and terroir shine through (rather than having these characteristics be masked by the vessel). We’ve convinced more than one producer to switch from oak — and even steel — to concrete. The wines are lightly filtered or unfiltered, so don’t be bothered by any sediment. It’s another sign of these wines’ authenticity.
The 21 part reflects our desire to find and export authentic wine from each of Italy’s 21 regions*. We don’t know if we’ll find a wine in all 21 regions, but that’s the long-term goal!
Wines:
FUSO21 Fuso Barbera Piemonte
FUSO21 Brusco Sangiovese Toscana
FUSO21 Le Salse Verdicchio di Matelica
FUSO21 Denny Bini Lambrusco dell’Emilia
*As some of you more astute types have pointed out, there are only 20 regions in Italy. However, with the ongoing Italian political saga of threatened succession and division, we decided to choose a more lucky number and be ahead of Italy’s anarchic curve.
FUSO21: Denny Bini Lambrusco dell’Emilia
Vigna / Vineyard
Denominazione / Appellation:Lambrusco Emilia IGP.
Nome / Name: Podere Emilia.
Ettari / Hectares: 1.5 ha.
Quota / Altitude: 120 m / 394 ft.
Suoli / Type of soils: Sedimentary clay.
Esposizione / Exposure: North / South.
Vitigni / Varieties: Lambrusco Marani 30%, Lambrusco Salamino 30%, Lambrusco Maestri 20%, Lambrusco Grasparossa 10%, Ancellotta 10%.
Età delle viti / Vine age: 15 years old.
Densità / Planting Density: 2000 vines/hectare.
Allevamento / Trellis system: GDC.
Data di vendemmia / Harvest date: 2013.
Metodo di vendemmia / Harvest technique: Hand harvested.
Metodo agricolo / Agricultural technique: Organic, non cerified.
Resa / Yield: 10000 kilograms / hectare.
Cantina / Cellar
Lieviti / Yeasts: Native yeasts for the first fermentation; selected yeasts in autoclave.
Fermentazione alcolica / Alcoholic fermentation: Spontaneous.
Fermentazione malolattica / Malolactic fermentation: Spontaneous.
Affinamento / Élevage: Long charmat.
Chiarificazione, filtrazione / Clarification, filtration: 1 µm.
Zolfo / Sulphur: 60 mg/L total.
Altri prodotti aggiunti? / Other products added?: None.
Produzione annua / Annual production: 1000 cases of 12 bottles each.
Gradazione alcolica / Alcoholic %: 11%.
Tappo e bottiglia / Closure and bottle: Crown cap, 750 ml Emilian bottle.