Thinking of Emilia Romagna means thinking of Lasagna, Prosciutto, Parmigiano Reggiano and several other top food products. I can safely state that Emilia Romagna is the food capital of Italy. On the other hand it is a real pity that Emilia Romagna, with a few exceptions, it is not a premium wine producer.

In fact, less than 10% of its total wine production is a DOC or DOCG and the biggest part of the industry's output it is mass wine produced in the huge and fertile Padana plain. This problem has an economic origin. Wine producers in Emilia Romagna are mostly enormous cooperatives which are usually not quality-oriented hence commerce oriented. For many cooperatives the goal is to increase quantity and not quality. This problem litterally destroyed the enormous potential of this region in terms of quality wine production.

The most famous wines from Emilia Romagna are Lambrusco, Albana di Romagna, Sangiovese di Romagna, Colli Piacentini, Colli Bolognesi and Gutturnio.

Lambrusco is without any doubt the most famous wine of Emilia Romagna. This wine comes from the omonym grape Lambrusco and it is probably the most popular italian mass wine. It is an intense fruity, medium-bodied, semi-sparkling red wine which is often drunk very young. Lambrusco can be found dry or sweet and can be loved or ated. It is usually really appreciated by young people. It is popular to pair Lambrusco with Pizza, however I do not suggest this pair.

Nowdays there are a few winemakers which are producing extremely well made Lambrusco. Unfortunately, it is very hard to convince people to buy Lambrusco after the commercial disaster of 1980s. In fact, Lambrusco has been sold in the United States in an aluminum can: it was intended to compete with Coca Cola and obviously the result of this non-brilliant commercial idea has been the complete ruin for this wine. Things are slowly changing, and I invite you to look around in your local wine shop for a quality Lambrusco.

Some of the best Lambrusco available are the DOC's Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco di Sorbara and Lamrusco di Castelvetro.