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We couldn’t be more thrilled to share the news that the Lini family and its wines are featured in the December issue of Food & Wine magazine.

“To some people,” writes Food & Wine executive wine editor Ray Isle, “it might come as a surprise that there is good Lambrusco. The wine’s image has long battled against the impression that it’s a slightly sweet, innocuous, fizzy pink drink… But traditional Lambrusco is dry and crisp, an excellent foil for the rich food of Emilia-Romagna. Alicia’s father, Fabio, who makes the Lini wine, says, ‘If you drink a glass of 15% alcohol wine, you get drunk on one glass. With Lambrusco, you can drink more glasses — quality with quantity ! — and not feel bad. Balance and drinkability is our goal. And that the day after, you feel good.”

The magazine should be hitting newsstands and bookstores early next week.

Check out “Pop Fizz Feast: In the hills of Emilia-Romagna, a Lambrusco-making family uncorks the holiday season with a joyful meal — and plenty of great sparkling wine,” including Alicia’s family recipes for their holiday celebration.

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Happy Easter to all our friends in America, Italy, and across the world. We hope that you are able to enjoy the holiday despite the need for social distancing.

Thankfully, everyone in our family is safe and healthy. And like Italians across our country, we are isolating.

Grape growing and winemaking are considered essential businesses in Italy and so we continue to work in the winery and in the vineyards. But we are taking every step and precaution to make sure that our employees stay safe and healthy.

We will get through this — together. And we’ll look forward to when we will be able to raise a glass of Lambrusco together, here in Italy and in America.

In the meantime, happy Easter from all the families at Lini 910 to you and yours.

The following is a letter that Alicia wrote to a friend and colleague in America.

April 5, 2020
Palm Sunday
Canolo (Reggio Emilia)

Nothing is obvious anymore. Nothing is the same, nothing we think of is like it was before. These days, everyone has something to say. But not me.

In the film “The Pursuit of Happyness,” Will Smith often carries a Rubik’s Cube with him. It has six sides, each with nine little colored squares. Each of the sides can be moved horizontally or vertically. I’m sure you’ve seen one before, haven’t you? There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations (yes, that’s trillions). But there’s only one way to solve the puzzle, when the color is the same on all six sides, all at the same time.

When the puzzle is solved, do these six sides represent happiness?

Over the last weeks, staying at home has meant mixing up those colors.

Every side of my life has been turned upside down, remixed, repositioned in an unexpected way. It seems counterintuitive but I’m actually happy that I don’t have to try to get all the colors to be the same. I just have to “try.”

I decided that when the coronavirus interferes with our lives, I’ll just let all the colors get jumbled — every time.

I grew up in the 1980s. I grew up with a Rubik’s Cube. But every time I look back on important moments in my true life, I realize that nothing ever happened without sacrifices, without breaking a sweat, without real focus, without delving deeper… Nothing ever happened without mixing up the colors.

I want to live this moment of my life by striving to “learn more.”

That’s exactly what I mean when I say I want to learn more about what it means to be happy.

More about opportunity to grow.

More about my deepest-held values.

More about beauty.

More about silence.

More about the sacred.

More about what I want to achieve in the world of wine.

More about what it means to be a mother and a woman surrounded by all these colors.

The keyword is “learn.”

If director Gabriele Muccino would have called his film just “Happiness,” it wouldn’t have been the same.

My daughters are big fans of rainbows.

In one of the last photos I took of our winery, there is not just one but two rainbows that stretch over the roof of our four generations. My family has been making wine for 110 years. Over the arc of that time, we have experienced two world wars, struggles, destruction, rebuilding, good times, tough times… and now even the coronavirus.

All of the colors are mixed up again. Just like they’ve always been.

Whether in times of challenges or times of great happiness, my grandfather would always open a bottle of Lambrusco.

I find hope in the fact that we can always open a bottle of Lambrusco together, as long as we are alive.

The important thing is that all the colors are there.

Alicia Lini
Lini 910
Canolo (Reggio Emilia)

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He’s a big part of the Lini winery’s spirit.

Alessio “Pibe” Lini, above (his nickname is pronounced PEE-beh, like the soccer star “El Pibe,” meaning “the Kid”).

“Lawyer, runner, dreamer, lover,” reads the tagline on his Instagram, where his more than 25,000 followers await his poetic reflections on life and pragmatic advice for the soul.

A former soccer star and music industry lawyer, he’s as much social media sensation as he is lifestyle guru when he’s not on the road selling Lini wines across Italy.

He was recently profiled by the popular Italian lifestyle, arts, and finance online magazine BeBeez.

Here’s an excerpted translation of the piece:

    I was born into a family that has been making wine in a village in the Reggio Emilia [province] valley for 110 years. Each September we harvest our grapes. Traffic is forced to a standstill by tractors that come and go from the wineries. They’re full of grapes plucked from the vines by teams of pickers. The folks who work the harvest come from all walks of life, people of all ages.
    There’s not one kid who hasn’t spent a harvest picking grapes to scrape a few extra bucks for the winter.
    Today, we receive prizes and awards from all over the world for what we do. And I’m proud of that. But this is where I’m from.

We love him, we need him, and we couldn’t live without him. He’s such a big part of what makes Lini special. Wines that transcend simple pleasure and become the joy of life and living itself.

Check out the profile (in Italian) here.

Image via Pibe’s Instagram.