LLS VDI 2019

LINI | Emilia-Romagna

Table 10

A “classic Charmat.” When Oreste Lini started to produce wine in 1910, the ink on the patent of Monsieur Eugene Charmat was still not dry. The autoclave was just an unknown French word in the heart of Emilia where Oreste first opened his winery. What was known instead, to him and many at the time, was the capacity of Lambrusco to produce excellent wines that were the ideal companion to Emilia’s rich and earthy cuisine. In Correggio, Oreste’s hometown, just 7 miles away from Sorbara, often recognized as the Lambrusco Capital, wines were particularly good, thanks to the Salamino di Santa Croce variety which combines the elegant fragrance of Sorbara with the power and tannins of Grasparossa. Oreste crafted his wines “the French way” using both methode ancestrale and champenoise. The affection for the latter was passed on generation to generation and is deeply rooted in Lini’s production philosophy. After War World II, the first autoclaves arrived in Emilia. The family embraced this new vessel but kept a “metodo classico approach” even with this new, revolutionary technique. Long second fermentations and painstaking care in the vineyards and cellar, set Lini apart from most producers who used the new container as a quickway to produce cheaper wines. The Lini way. Lini has never lost its thirst for quality nor their appetite for life. Not even during the 70s and 80s, when sweet Lambrusco took the world by storm and sold an astonishing 13 million bottles in the US alone in 1985. Lini was never part of this trend that destroyed the image of Lambrusco for decades. Lini went their own way, keeping residual sugar in their wines at Brut standards (10gr/lt) and always pushing for higher quality, even when they found themselves alone in this mission. Lini persevered with passion even though wine critics thought that high quality Lambrusco was nothing but a strange oxymoron. The Lini way was finally celebrated in 2015 when Lini made the list of Wine Spectator Opera Wine’s 100 greatest producers. Today, Lini leads the way of the renaissance of high-quality Lambrusco. They did not join this movement, they created it with their own history and by always believing in the potential of Lambrusco. But, most of all, by always staying true to themselves and being Lini.

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