Reggiano DOC

The Lambrusco of Reggio Emilia, and the largest of the Lambrusco denominations by volume. Where Sorbara and Grasparossa each rest on one variety, Reggiano works with six of them, plus a seventh grape that exists mainly to supply colour.

The Terroir The registered file explains itself in physiological terms. The zone is characterised by conditions of illumination and high thermal summations that allow adequate ripening — an important factor for the lambrusco varieties, which ripen late. The soils, tending to be calcareous and of fine texture, produce perfumed wines with a high content of anthocyanins and polyphenols. It then adds the acid side: soil characteristics and good water availability give a good content of acidity, including malic acid, which supplies the freshness the frizzante and sparkling styles need.

Six Lambruschi The disciplinare permits Lambrusco Salamino, Marani, Maestri, Montericco, Oliva and Viadanese — six genuinely distinct varieties, not clones, each contributing something different: Salamino colour and body, Marani acidity and foam, Maestri weight, Montericco perfume. Blending across them is the Reggiano method, and it is why the wine is more consistent and less distinctive than its single-variety neighbours.

Ancellotta The seventh grape is the interesting one. Ancellotta is not a Lambrusco; it is a separate variety of extraordinary colour, so deeply pigmented that for decades most of the crop went not into wine but into concentrated must sold to colour other people’s reds across Europe. Reggiano permits it as a minority partner, where it deepens the purple and adds a sweet, almost jammy middle. Reggio Emilia grows more of it than anywhere else on earth.

The Critical Take Reggiano is the least fashionable Lambrusco and the one most bound up with the industry that damaged the category’s name — the enormous cooperatives here supplied the sweet export product of the 1970s and 1980s. The recovery has been real but uneven: the dry secco bottlings from serious producers are excellent, sharply acidic and genuinely refreshing, while a great deal of what carries the name is still made to a price. Read the producer, not the denomination.

Bubbles Since the Seventeenth Century The file notes that the traditionally frizzante wines here, “with bubbles”, have been known since the seventeenth century. That predates any deliberate sparkling-wine technology in the region: the wines refermented in spring on their residual sugar because the cellars were cold in winter, and the local taste formed around the result.

At the Table Emilian cooking, and specifically the fat: erbazzone, gnocco fritto with prosciutto and mortadella, tortelli, cotechino, and Parmigiano Reggiano of course. Serve at 12–14°C.

Benchmark Producers Medici Ermete, Venturini Baldini, Casali Viticultori.