Dirt Candy doesn’t have much room to store cases of wine, so rather than offering people the same old list of Syrahs, Cabernets, Chardonnays, Pinot Grigios and all the rest of the usual suspects I thought I’d make up a wine list of the strangest and most unusual wines I could find, sort of like a wine zoo for exotic animals.

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When most people hear about Lambrusco they have the same reaction: a sparkling red wine?

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Gag me with a spoon!

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But Lambrusco is one of my favorite varietals and after you try the Vigneto Enrico Cialdini I’m serving now, from the Cleto Chiarli estates, I promise it’ll be one of your favorites, too. Think about it this way: Lambrusco has a terrible reputation to overcome, and every glass you order and enjoy is one step closer to redemption for this unfairly maligned grape.

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Redeem me!

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Back in the late 70′s and early 80′s everyone in America wanted to be a wine snob because that’s how you lured the foxes back to your swinging bachelor pad. One of the wines that seemed oh-so-sophisticated was Lambrusco, mostly marketed by Riunite (remember their ad jingle: “Riunite on ice/Riunite so nice/Riunite!”), and so much bad Lambrusco was poured onto the market that soon the shelves of supemarkets were swimming in the stuff (along with Chianti in straw-wrapped bottles). Now, wine snobs look back on their follies of the early 80′s in the same way they look back on their haircuts of the early 80′s – with shame, horror and dismay – and so poor Lambrusco is lost in the passing winds of fashion.

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The Riunite Lambrusco RV probably doesn’t help

much in the battle to make Lambrusco classy again.

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But taste will triumph trends every time. And Lambrusco tastes amazing. It hails from Emilia-Romagna, the region of Italy that is home to Modena, one of only two places in the world that produces authentic balsamic vinegar. There are three regions for Lambrusco in Emilia-Romagna (and one in Lombardia) and it’s one of the oldest wine grapes in the world. I’m serving Vigneto Enrico Cialdini which is made by the Cleto Chiarli estate, which was founded in 1860 by Cleto Chiarli who was homebrewing his own Lambrusco for his restaurant, Trattoria dell’Artigliere, back in then. His Lambrusco moonshine was so popular that he founded the winery to make more, More, MORE Lambrusco and today his vineyards are small – downright artisanal – with the grapes being picked by hand and pressed and vinified right on the property.

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Lambrusco comes from grapes, just like

other, more “normal” wine.

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Named after the Italian Duke who fought an awful lot of losing battles against Italian national hero, Garibaldi, the Vigneto Enrico Cialdini is one of the most startling red wines you’ll ever drink. Served chilled, it’s got a huge aroma, all fleshy and smelling of strawberries. The taste is surprising because rather than being sweet, it’s full of grippy tannins which grab the inside of your mouth like an expensive red wine. There’s the taste of chestnuts, but none of the fattiness associated with nuts, and some berries, but the main impression you get is of a big, bold, muscular red wine that just happens to be effervescent.

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It’s a refreshing, and extremely drinkable wine, and one that becomes addictive. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a long, hard day and been revived by a glass of Lambrusco. Like Tracy Chapman, it’s a relic of the 80′s that has been unfairly tarnished by time.

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Stryper, on the other hand, has

been fairly tarnished by time.

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(Hey, look! Even the New York Times loves Lambrusco)

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