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That’s “Shanghai Noodle Surf + Turf” at Meyers & Chang in Boston above: “Soy marinated beef + shrimp, bell peppers + bean sprouts come together in a zingy black pepper sauce in the wok with wheat noodles. Brightened up with a little peanut + lime” (via the restaurant’s Instagram).

Hungry yet?

They only have a handful of wines on their list. But man, it’s such a great wine program!

Here’s their tasting note for the Lini Lambrsuco Labrusca Rosato: “Sparkling rosé – sour cherries, strawberry jam. Dry – friendly with all sorts of food!”

Right now we are DREAMING of pairing the Labrusca with that dish. But alas, they don’t deliver to Emilia!

It’s on our list for when we can get back to America!

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“Never one to follow trends,” writes leading wine writer and educator Wanda Mann (above), author of the popular Wine With Wanda blog, “Lini makes their traditional dry style of Lambrusco the same way they always have, including the use of hand riddling, to create wines that are fresh and food-friendly with brilliant fruit flavors.”

Wanda recently featured an interview with Alicia on her Instagram: Check it out here.

Wanda is one of the wine world’s rising stars and leading voices and we couldn’t be more thrilled that she took time out to connect with Alicia and taste a few wines together. See the post for her tasting notes and the interview.

Thank you, Wanda! You are awesome!

Image via Wanda’s Facebook.

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A lot of our friends in America find it hard to believe when we tell them that in Italy, the classic pairing for pizza isn’t wine but beer.

The other thing that Italians like to pair with pizza is Coca Cola. Yes, Coke.

Part of the reason that beer and Coke top the list is because Italians like to drink something sparkling with pizza. Part of the reasoning behind this is that because pizza is dairy heavy, a sparkling beverage helps to balance the richness of the dish.

But there are other reasons as well.

Pizza is a dish served piping hot. So it’s not an ideal match for a still wine — red or white. Because of its serving temperature, a chilled beverage (again, ideally sparkling) works great.

Pizza is also a dish that has a lot of acidity in it. Between the mozzarella and the tomato, its tart character is pronounced. That also makes it a not ideal candidate for still wine because the acidity can be outpaced by the acidity in the dish.

And it’s for all the reasons above that Lambrusco works so great with pizza, even an intensely salty pizza like a napoletana with anchovies and capers (above).

Lambrusco is sparkling.

Lambrusco is slightly sweet (it should be overly sweet but just subtly sweet enough to go head to head with a salty dish like pizza).

Lambrusco has gentle acidity. It’s not great Lambrusco when the acidity is too pronounced.

But perhaps most importantly, the Lambrusco ethos is perfect for pizza. It’s all about a casual setting with friends having a good time, relaxed and easy.

Sounds like a glass of Lambrusco, doesn’t it?

Try it and you’ll thank us.

What’s your favorite pizza to pair with Lambrusco?

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Last night (at 7:30 p.m. CST in Texas and 2:30 a.m. CET Friday morning in Italy), Alicia joined a Zoom call “virtual wine dinner” with 40+ wine lovers hosted by Roma in Houston.

As the guests enjoyed a Lambrusco-inspired menu paired with three Lini wines (the Labrusca Rosé, the Labrusca Rosso, and the Lambrusco In Correggio Scuro), Alicia spoke about the history of her family’s winery and the wines.

Many of the guests had never tasted a Lambrusco before and it was thrilling to watch them discover authentic Lambrusco for the first time.

Thank you Roma, owner Shanon Scott, and chef Angelo Cuppone for hosting such a wonderful event and including us!

We’ll look forward to the next time.

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No one really knows where the name comes from (although some believe it might be a corruption of the ancient Longobard knohhil meaning wood knot).

But everyone in Italy knows what it looks and tastes like: gnocco fritto (above).

Literally, it means fried dumpling, like the gnocchi (plural) or dumplings that you simmer and served topped with your favorite sauce.

But technically, the term is more akin to what we today call fried dough in the U.S. (similar to the pizza fritta or fried pizza [dough] that you find at Italian-American festivals in the U.S.).

In Emilia where Lambrusco is made, gnocco fritto is always served piping hot, right out of the frier.

It can be paired with salumi, thinly sliced prosciutto or mortadella, and even with a slathering of rendered lard.

The thing about gnocco fritto is that the serving temperature helps to liquify the fat in the cured pork, thus drawing out its flavor and giving it an even more decadent texture.

It’s one of the greatest and most canonical pairings for Lambrusco: The freshness of the wine, it gentle acidity, bubbles, and restrained sweetness make the salty rich flavors of the dough and the meat sing on your palate.

Gnocco fritto is one of the things we miss the most about Emilia. What do you miss? #IMissItaly #IMissEmilia

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We are thrilled to announce that Alicia Lini will be attending a virtual wine dinner at ROMA in Houston on Thursday, July 16 at 7:30 local time (CST).

While guests in Houston will be picking up their food and wines curbside at the restaurant and then joining a Zoom call with the owner and chef, Alicia will be connecting from Italy. She won’t be able to enjoy the menu obviously. But she will be tasting the wines with guests as she talks about her family’s winery and the four generations of Lini that have made their wines so popular throughout the world.

If you happen to be in Houston and want to attend, let us know (by sending our U.S. blog master an email here). Otherwise, stay tuned for notes for what is sure to be a wonderful evening of great food and great Lambrusco!

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In Parma they’re called anolini (little rings). In Reggio Emilia they’re called cappelletti (little hats). And in Bologna they’re called tortellini (little tortelli from torta a word akin to the English torte as in savory pie or cake).

They each have different shapes but the concept is the same: Homemade, hand-rolled egg pasta that has been filled with a mixture of finely chopped pork, prosciutto crudo, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and breadcrumbs. The filling will vary from city to city and even family to family. But the ingredients are basically the same.

The stuffed pasta is then cooked and served in capon or chicken broth (hence the name tortellini in brodo or tortellini in broth). And then guests are encouraged to top them generously with more freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

No matter the shape or filling, they are considered one of the world’s greatest delicacies. And they are paired — de rigueur! — with Lambrusco.

They are one of the things that we miss most here in the U.S. #IMissItaly #IMissEmilia #IMissTortellini

For the record, those are tortellini from Bologna in the image above. In Reggio Emilia commune where the Lini winery is located, they make cappelletti.

What do you miss from Italy?

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A ton of people have been asking about the above photo, posted recently by Alicia’s brother Pibe on social media.

The dish is Zuppa Gallurese, a decadent layered cheese and bread savory pudding from the Gallura region of northern Sardinia (a note from our English-language blog master: the Italian zuppa can be translated as both soup and pudding in English, depending on the context/dish; in this case, pudding is the appropriate translation).

A Google search for a recipe swiftly led us to one of our favorite Italian food blogs, Our Italian Table, where we found this wonderful recipe for Zuppa Gallurese.

The wine? It speaks for itself.

Buon appetito!

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Winemakers will always tell you that wines are made in the vineyard, not in the cellar.

And there’s no denying that this timeless adage is true. In order to make a great wine, you need to start with great grapes.

But especially when it comes to sparkling wine like Lambrusco, where the work in the cellar is extremely delicate and critical to making a great wine, the winemaker’s deft hand is really going to make the difference.

And perhaps the most important element in the creation of a great Lambrusco is the winemaker’s patience.

As Alicia Lini likes to point out when she’s traveling the U.S. teaching wine professionals and consumers about her family’s wines, it’s the time devoted to lees aging that makes Lini’s wines stand out in the crowded field of Italian sparkling wines.

As with all sparkling wine, Lambrusco is fermented twice, with the second fermentation taking place in a pressurized environment (in the case of Lini Lambrusco, some of the wines are made using the classic method and are double-fermented in bottle; some of the wines are made using the tank method and are double-fermented in pressurized vats).

After the second fermentation has been completed, the wines then “age on their lees.” In other words, they are stored with the lees, the solids that are created when the yeast dies.

And this is where patience and time play a crucial role in creating quality. As Alicia will tell you, you can make Lambrusco in a week if you want. It’s cheaper to make that way. And it saves the producer even more money because the wines can be shipped right away.

In the case of Lini’s wines, the winemaker patiently allows the wines to age on their lees until he decides that they are truly ready. And he won’t bottle the wines until they have achieved the desired quality.

For some of Lini’s wines, this takes more than six months. Sometimes, it takes years, as in the case of Lini’s classic method Lambrusco (the current release in the U.S. is 2006!).

The proper amount of lees aging is what gives the wine its depth and nuance. And that’s what makes Lini’s wines stand out from the crowd.