Emilia-Romagna

The third biggest region for production (behind Veneto and Puglia) has not generally been one of great interest to fine wine consumers for the last half century, although there are real signs of this changing. The bulk of production is still dreary white Albana and Trebbiano and red Sangiovese from the Romagna hills to the east of Bologna and lakes of industrial Lambrusco from the Emilia plains centred around Modena. However, there are some brilliants wines to be found in amongst the swathes of lower quality produce.

The Colli Piacentini borders Lombardy and make large quantities of dull sparkling wine, but also small amounts of high quality traditional method spumante and increasingly high quality blends of Cabernet, Pinot Nero and Barbera. Whilst Lambrusco, with its four subzones Mantovano, di Sorbara, Grasparossa di Castelvetro and Salamino di Santa Croce mostly produces sweetish frothing reds of no distinction, there are pockets of excellence making traditional dry wines with a thrilling bitter cherry sweetness, perfect with the local charcuterie and cheese of Parma, longside some highly complex traditional method sparkling, the best of which tend to be rosato. The Colli Bolognese to the south of Bologna are making some fine Chardonnay and Cabernet based wines, along with the local white speciality Pignoletto, usually sparkling and often a characterful petillant naturel style. The aforementioned Sangiovese di Romagna is as likely as not to be a cheap raw and rustic red from a local co-operative, but even here there are estate producers making powerful and complex wines that can easily outperform many Chianti. This is a region with some of the best produce of Italy and with the potential to be a powerhouse of quality wine production, but this sleeping giant is barely stirring.