Article by Matteo Donelli
From the New York Times to the local country newspaper.
From Manhattan to Correggio.
From Reims, the heart of Champagne, to the heart of Lambrusco, Emilia.
Intricate skein of wine with threads that connect distant points of the world. The key to the problem lies only in trying to interpret and translate into words the overwhelming passion of a family for its wine.
The noble French bubbles, with an elegant perlage with its delicate aromas, contrasted with the rough and intense reds of Lambrusco.
After the war, at the end of the fifties, with a Europe and an Italy to be rebuilt.
Those Emilian reds whose purplish foam often represented one of the moments of pleasure and lightness of the day of the men of the field. Wines of substance, capable of degreasing the mouth from those poor and fat dishes born to load the farmers with calories for the tiring tasks.
Champagne could not even be dreamed of. Too. For rich and beautiful women. Too simple for normal people even for special occasions. At most one sparkling wine for New Year's Eve.
The Sundays of Oreste Lini at the beginning of the twentieth century were all the same: research and enological experimentation in his cellar at the time in Correggio.
Lead to adopt the classic method in Italy in Emilia. Attempts lasted decades. Carried on by their children with the same passion as their grandfather. The dream that begins to take shape in the fifties after studies, travels and collaborations with the prestigious French Champagne cellars.
Pinot Noir selected in its cradle of Italian excellence, the Oltrepò Pavese. Strong and dominant grapes certainly not easy to "tame" through a complex processing process as can be the classic method in the Emilian version.
A real artisan oenology laboratory open to experts not only from beyond the Alps.
Era of Italian social ascents those of the 70s and 80s where the bottles of bubbles emphasized well-being and successes. Sparkling wines and Prosecco to be the masters and Champagne, three steps above, only for a very select few.
Wine Spectactor, Bible of World Enology, recently decreed the Lini winery among the top 100 best in Italy thanks to one of its flagship wines, the Classic Red Millesimato 2004 Method from Lambrusco Salamino grapes.
25 hectares located in the heart of the Reggio plain, selected suppliers from Oltrepò Pavese and a strong artisan approach capable of guaranteeing a varied cellar, from the Charmat to the Classic method, vintage Lambrusco, Cuveè up to the blanc de noirs based on Pinot Noir.
USA, land of meritocracy, where you are only there if the market considers you "cool". You can find the design bottles of Lini 910 on display, more easily in the top wine bars of New York than perhaps in those of our Peninsula.
"Emilian Champagne" loved by various men of the world show business, our pride that, as often happens for certain excellences, little known locally.
Sundays of passion, sacrifices and many books on French enology by Mr. Oreste enclosed behind a number, which is not just one number: 910.
Article by Matteo Donelli
