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That’s Alicia, above, with Leonardo LoCascio, Italian wine industry legend and friend to Lini 910, in Correggio this week. Leonardo is one of the greatest pioneers of our industry. And he’s also been a cherished mentor to Alicia. His company had never carried a Lambrusco until Leonardo selected Lini 910 to be part of Winebow’s select portfolio.

The following is a post devoted to the maestro, published originally in 2019.

Be sure to check out Alicia’s new Instagram, @InMyLambruscoShoes, where Alicia documents her travels, work, and family life.

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LoCascio is widely considered to have been one of the main architects of the Italian wine renaissance in the U.S. during the late 1980s and 1990s.

It was way back in the 1970s that he had a vision of bringing top Italian wines to north America. At the time, Italian wine wasn’t considered “fine wine” in the U.S. And the historic estates that he brought to this country for the first time played a fundamental role in reshaping American consumers’ attitudes about and perceptions of Italian wine here.

Many in the Italian wine trade don’t realize it but he also revolutionized the way that Italian wine was shipped and imported to the U.S. His model for shipping and customs consolidation radically changed the way business was done here, in no small part because his “DI” (direct importing) model reduced the importer’s costs significantly. As a result, high end Italian wine became much more affordable in this market. Today, his DI model is the industry standard in a field that continues to expand some forty years after he founded Winebow (1980).

Winebow remains the premier importer of Italian wines in the U.S., legacy that spans a generation. But LoCascio never imported a Lambrusco — ever. Lini Lambrusco is the first Lambrusco that Winebow has ever imported. And the Lini couldn’t be more honored or more excited by this new chapter in their family’s history.

Chapeau bas, Leonardo! You are a pioneer, a visionary, and an Italian wine original! Thank you for everything you have done for Italian wine in the U.S. over the decades. Without you, none of us would be here today.

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First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who came by the Lini 910 stand at Vinitaly in Verona last week!

It was a great fair and it was great to be back in-person. And it was wonderful to see so many good friends whom we haven’t been able to hug in WAY too long!

In other BIG news, Alicia has a new Instagram: @inmylambruscoshoes.

Please visit her new feed for photos from Lini 910’s Vinitaly. And please follow! We’re so excited to see more of Alicia and her travels on social media.

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Last night Alicia hosted more than 50 guests at a sold out wine dinner at Roma restaurant in Houston.

Many local wine luminaries were in attendance, including Houston Chronicle wine writer, Dale Robertson “the Sporty Wine Guy” and many notable collectors.

It was a wonderful night to be in Texas! Heartfelt thanks to Roma owner Shanon Scott for inviting us to present our wines. What a fantastic event!

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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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Congratulations to our U.S. importer, Winebow, named one of the “importer of the year 2019” by the editors of Wine & Spirits magazine!

“Next time you’re faced with a sea of wines you don’t recognize,” write the editors, “check the back of the bottle. That’s what we do, looking for importers we recognize and trust, like our six Importers of the Year. They’ve earned the most awards this year, with multiple brands among our Top 100 Wineries, Top 100 Wines and Best Buys of 2019. If you find importers whose tastes and interests align with your own, you’ll have guideposts you can trust to lead you to new bottles.”

Heartfelt congrats to the entire team at Winebow! We love working with you guys!

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Yesterday, Alicia spoke and led a guided tasting at the Women in Wine Leadership Symposium in New York — an invitation-only gathering featuring leading women wine professionals from across the world.

That’s Alicia above (left) with Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon, another one of the featured panelists at yesterday’s event.

Known as “Detroit’s First Lady of Wine,” Madeline made history when she became the first American woman, the second woman in the world, and the ninth American to earn the coveted Master Sommelier title. She also made news at the time by passing the notoriously challenging exam on her first attempt — something very few of her colleagues have achieved.

See this superb profile of Madeline in the Atlantic to read more about her trail-blazing career and life.

Chapeau bas, Madeline! Alicia was thrilled to get to meet you and interact with you!

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Here’s what Minneapolis-based wine blogger Carin Skowronsky had to say about Lini Lambrusco in a recent post on her wonderful site, Pairs Well With… Thank you, Carin, for taking time out to taste with Alicia and for the kind words!

If there’s a line of Lambrusco that I’m getting behind and absolutely love, it’s the Lini 910 and Lini Charmat wines. A couple of months back, I had a chance to meet winemaker Alicia Lini and taste her entire portfolio of wines. I was blown away. These wines were easily a game changer. Not only were her wines top notch, but it was amazing to hear her story, as well as the background of her winery and the production behind the bottle. These are well worth watching out for at your local bottle shop. Brilliant wines all around.

There’s something interesting that happened in Italy a while back. Italian winemakers in this region were expected to make Lambrusco “the American way,” which meant the overly sweet sugar bomb I described earlier. Italian winemakers, such as Alicia and her family, stood their ground, trusted their production and continued making authentic Lambrusco. As far as I’m concerned, the smart ones finish first. This wine is the bomb.