The home of Lambrusco

…and much more besides

A little light info to get us all started on Emilia Romagna:

Regional Vineyard:

Total Vineyard Size

55,929 hectares – total regional vineyard including those vineyards producing grapes for Quality wines, Table wines & Table grapes

Dedicated to Quality

30,432 hectares are dedicated to producing grapes for Quality wines.

Notable Cru/Zones:

Bosco Eliceo*

North of Ravenna, east of Ferrara, this is the native home to the red variety Fortana. Famous for its ‘Vini delle Sabbie’, due to its sandy soils, Bosco Eliceo escaped the wrath of phylloxera. So these vines grow on native rootstock. A must visit.

Castelvetro*

This is Lambrusco Grasparossa country where the wines are pleasurable full-bodied fruit driven affairs.

Colli Bolognesi*

Here we’ve got to look out for one of the regions 2 DOCG’s – the Colli Bolognesi Classico Pignoletto. Min 95% Pignoletto native to the area.

Colli di Faenza

Colli Forlì Cesena*

Home to the regions 2nd DOCG – Romagna Albana – in general we’re talking passito style wines produced from a min 95% the native white grape ALBANA. But you might also find them in styes from dry, off-dry and sweet.

Colli Piacentini *

Mostly international varieties in production here

Colli di Parma*

Main focus on international varieties

Colli Romagna Centrale *

Tuscany’s Sangiovese plays an important role

Colli di Scandiano *

Here at last we’ve got a local. Keeping our eyes peeled for native white variety ‘Spergola’

Colli di Rimini *

Hills focused on whites

Gutturnio *

Here there’s some interesting work ongoing with the red variety called ERVI, a cross between italian natives – Barbera x Bonarda.

Modena

Ortrugo*

South of Piacenza you’ll find Ortrugo DOC, where they produce dry and sparkling whites made with a min 90% Ortrugo native white grapes.

Reno *

An interesting variety here is MONTU’ which requires a min of 85%

Santa Croce*

Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce country – min 85% required to qualify

Sorbara*

Lambrusco di Sorbara country. Here the wines are fresh and more floral compared with other Lambrusco varietals. Look for 100% varietals where you can. But just so you know, they begin with min 60% Lambrusco di Sorbara + up to max 40% Lambrusco Salamino.

Wine Style/Quality:

% Red

46.3%

% White

53.7%

% DOP / IGP

The most recent available figures from 2013 indicate 20.5% of wines from Emilia Romagna are produced according to EU DOP Quality standards. The region produces 20 DOP wines including 2 DOCG and 18 DOC wines. They also produce 9 IGP wines accounting for 38.1% of production. Table wines account for 32.2% of output.

EMILIA ROMAGNA – NATIVE GRAPES

As always, a number of the regions native grape varieties are used only for blending purposes. That said, we’ve listed those grapes which we understand might be available as mono-varietals or which are interesting blenders. Naturally, as we make our own discovery, we’ll update these lists.

NATIVE REDS

BARBAROSSA

ANCELLOTTA

CENTESIMINO

ERVI

FORGARINA

FORTANA*

This native red escaped the wrath of Phylloxera, due in the main to the sandy soils in which the vines grow. Still planted on their native rootstock.

LAMBRUSCO BARGHI

LAMBRUSCO DI FIORANO

LAMBRUSCO DI SORBARA

LAMBRUSCO GRASPAROSSA DI CASTELVETRO

LAMBRUSCO MAESTRI

LAMBRUSCO MARANI

LAMBRUSCO MONTERICCO

LAMBRUSCO SALAMINO

LAMBRUSCO VIADANESE

MALBO GENTILE

NEGRETTO

SGAVETTA

TREMARINA ROSSA

UVA LONGANESI

UVA TOSCA

NATIVE WHITES

ALBANA*

This variety makes some HQ sweet white wines. One of the regions only 2 DOCG’s. Find it near Ravenna, Forlì and Cesena.

ALIONZA

BESGANO BIANCO

CARGARELLO

CIURLESE

LANZESA

MALIGIA

MALVASIA DI CANDIA AROMATICA

MELARA

MONTU’

ORTRUGO*

Min. 90% goes into making these dry & sparkling whites.

PIGNOLETTO*

Makes Classic DOCG whites. Interestingly they’ve discovered that Grechetto di Todi in nearby Umbria is identical to Pignoletto.

RUGGINE

SANTA MARIA

SPERGOLA

TREBBIANO ROMAGNOLO

OUR STATSOURCES

ISTAT – Italy’s Istituto Nazionale delle Statistiche (Census 2010 / Vineyard Production Figures 2013)
AIS – The Association of Italian Sommeliers
‘I Numeri del Vino’ – Marco Baccaglio’s top Italian blog – lots of numbers :)
Wine Grapes – Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz – lots of great grape stuff – BUY IT!
Native Wine Grapes of Italy – Ian D’Agata – extensive – Highly recommend its purchase!
Lavinium – Italian wine & culture. Brilliant site. Only in Italian. Great reason to learn Italian!! www.lavinium.com

vintage information

Due to the variability of information from year to year, all data provided is intended to be for indicative purposes only. But we do try to keep ourselves ‘reasonably’ updated :)