The best Lambrusco of our life

It is not easy, even for a Lambrusco aficionado, to imagine what a Lambrusco made with the classic method and disgorged 19 years after the harvest might be. The only way to know is to taste Lini 910's In Correggio Rosso Millesimato DT 2004.

When it comes to Lambrusco there are people who think it is something different from wine. In America they have called it "Red Cola" even. My friend Marco Manzoli, aka Vinogodi, and I are staunch Lambruschists, and we switch very nonchalantly from great reds to some quality Lambrusco, Ermete Medici, Chiarli, Paltrinieri, Bellei, Cantina della Volta. Between Reggio Emilia and Modena, of course, between Sorbara, where they are almost rosé, taut and agile, to Correggio, where the Salamino di Santa Croce variety gives rise to darker wines with black fruit aromas. All good, some wonderful wines, sure. 

Then those crazy people at Lini 910 bring out a few thousand bottles of something incredible. The 2004 In Correggio, a classic method with 18 years on the lees. What are we to say. 

Assigning a score of 97/100 is the minimum, but it doesn't make the point. Perhaps it can make it the fact that it has a rosy froth, that the aromas range from plum to licorice, passing through notes of rose and black currant. The flavor is taut, enveloping, with a carbon dioxide component so creamy that it becomes one with the body of the wine, in a synthesis that to call sensual vaguely renders the idea. 

It is not called Lambrusco, just as Primo Franco's Grave di Stecca is not called Prosecco, but it is, like that one in its category, the finest ever tasted. The best Lambrusco of our lifetime. 

Click on the name of the wine to read the tasting note by Marco Manzoli, aka Vinogodi:

• Lini 910, In Correggio Rosso Millesimato DT 2004

(where, for those who are lazy, DT means degorgement tardif, disgorgement delayed, we would say in Italian).

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