Continuing with our exploration of sparkling wine, today I am looking at Lambrusco. This week’s Wine Wednesday focuses on a wine from Donelli. It’s a Lambrusco Amabile is made from 90% Lambrusco Grasparossa and 10% Malbo Gentile. The vines are grown on Calcareous clay. The grapes are hand harvested in September and then taken into the winery where they are pressed and vinified on the skins in stainless steel for 20 days. The secondary fermentation takes place in the tank according to the Charmat method.

Beautiful ruby red with fine bubbles and great mousse in the glass. On the nose and palate, red berry fruit with a hint of spice. The wine had nice acidity which made it a good fit for pasta with some tomato sauce. Yet it’s high level of sugar made it a match for our Christmas cookies too. I found it a very refreshing wine for this Wine Wednesday. Opici Wines brings in this wine.

Donelli Vini is a winery with over 100 years of history. It was founded in 1915 by Adolfo Donelli. The winery has 110 hectares of vines in the province of Modena.

Lambrusco Grasparossa del Castelvetro is considered to be a tad less refined than Lambrusco di Sorbara. It makes wines in the frizzante and amabile styles which people usually drink young and fresh. Grasparossa refers to the ruby red color of the stems. Grasparossa makes wines with the most tannin and that are the darkest in color of the Lambrusco clan.

The Amabile version is semi-sweet, with 30-50 g/L of residual sugar. The Donelli has 35 g/l but it has 7.0 acidity and only 9% ABV.

I wrote about this grape variety on November 10, 2016, the day after our current President was elected. Reading what I wrote, I had no idea the havoc that would befall America. I can’t wait until 2021 and January 21.