The Lambrusco Revival: Cinque Campi

Lambrusco, for many people for a very long time was a wine like Chianti from the straw-wrapped bottle or Soave in the litre bottle from the pizzeria. It was one of those wines from the 1970s where, after a night of heavy drinking in smoke-filled rooms, you would eventually wake up around Sunday midday with a throbbing headache. This wine has largely disappeared from view because, about a decade ago, a few committed winemakers attempted to change the image of Lambrusco that had been completely damaged by large cooperatives. They succeeded, and also thanks to the help of restaurateurs like Massimo Bottura, who in his award-winning Osteria Francescana was one of the first to put this special wine back on the menu. Lambrusco has become Lambrusco again …

Country Wine from the Land

One of the leading protagonists of the Lambrusco revival was and is Vanni Nizzoli.

Vanni comes from a family of farmers who were also grape growers and, as was customary in those days, practised mixed agriculture.

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The estate is situated somewhat off the beaten path in the idyllic Puianello di Quattro Castella, not far from the city of Reggio Emilia. It was in 2003 when Vanni decided to put all his eggs in one basket and specialise entirely in the production of wines that draw on old traditions and grape varieties. His parents had already named the winery after the oldest vineyard, Cinque Campi, in the 1980s and sold their first own bottlings to local restaurants and merchants, but Vanni wanted to start the whole thing from scratch.

Crucial to this was that he had seven hectares of old vineyards with old clones and grape varieties that had never been treated with systemic pesticides in his family.

So he began the certification process for organic wine production and subsequently devoted himself to the traditional wine styles of Emilia. He quickly acquired a reputation for producing one of the most charming and authentic Lambruscos of Emilia.

Cinque Campi – Five Fields

Vanni’s vineyards are Cinque Campi and Le Marcone, which he inherited from his parents, as well as Botteghe and La Bora Lungha, which he was able to acquire. They are all characterised by a mixture of sand, silt and clay with usually high silica content in varying proportions and in different orientations to the sun.

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»The high silica content of the sandy parts gives the wine freshness and acidity, an almost skeletal character, which I refer to as the bones of the wine. The chalk subsoil complements this with some power and minerality«, Vanni describes the influence of his soils on the wine. There stand the traditional varieties Malbo Gentile and Spergola as well as Lambrusco Grasparossa, but also Trebbiano dell’Emilia, Marzemino, Cabernet Sauvignon, Muscat and Carmenère.

Minimal Intervention

What begins in the vineyard with organic and partly biodynamic farming practices is consistently continued in the cellar.

If there is natural wine anywhere in Emilia-Romagna, it is here.

He even began the second fermentation without additives and solely using cooled must from his own grapes, with the quantity added determining the final pressure in the bottle. With less must it becomes a Frizzante, with more must a Spumante.

Vanni, his father and his son personally handle the riddling and disgorging of the approximately 11,000 bottles produced annually at Cinque Campi.

Text and wine expertise: Christoph Raffelt

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Natural Lambrusco