Emilia Romagna -- A Bit of History & Tradition

As the hyphenated name suggests, Emilia Romagna includes two distinct areas with Bologna, the region's capital, marking more or less the dividing line. Emilia, with its prosperous provinces lined along its ancient Roman-built Via Emilia, occupies the western sector, while Romagna lies to the east of Bologna and stretches all the way to the Adriatic Sea, the historic town of Ravenna and the well-known resort of Rimini.

Back in the time when agriculture was the main source of business in the area, well being and wealth were synonymous in the local culture and speech. The fertility of the Emilia Romagna plains generated riches and strongly influenced the traditions and popular festivals. Nowadays, Emilia Romagna's cities rank at the top of the national listing for the quality of life with Modena and Reggio Emilia competing at times for the title of Italy's wealthiest city. Until the nineteenth century, Emilia and Romagna were separate Papal States. They were unified in 1946. Today, as one writer says, if you want to know which region you're in, pull up to any house and ask for a drink. If they give you water you're in Emilia; if it's wine you know you're in Romagna.

Emilia Romagna has given many remarkable artists and professionals to Italy and the world such as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni, composer Giuseppe Verdi, film directors Federico Fellini and Pupi Avati. Fashion guru Giorgio Armani, the amazing painter Ligabue, popular singers Lucio Dalla, Vasco Rossi, Francesco Guccini and Zucchero Fornaciari, and poet Giovanni Pascoli are also from this area. Of course, we must also include Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini, world famous automobile makers.

As Italy's capital of gastronomy, Bologna was known as la grassa (the fat), a description less flattering today than it once was. But the city still gloats over a land of plenty that extends along the fertile southern flank of the Po River. Emilia (to the west of Bologna) and Romagna (to the east) flaunt their considerable differences, but together share Italy's most luxuriant tables. Recipes, like the names of dishes, vary from town to town in a region that breeds culinary heroes: Ferrara's Christoforo di Messisbugo, who chronicled the lavish menus of Renaissance courts; Parma's Duchess Marie Louise (wife of Napoleon), whose tastes inspired generations of dishes; Modena's Este dukes, who fostered the cult of aceto balsamico, the monarch of vinegars; Forlimpopoli's Pellegrino Artusi, the author known as the father of modern Italian cooking.

Whether it's the amazing Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Parma ham, traditional balsamic vinegar from Modena or Bologna Mortadella, the food basket of North Central Italy provides ample compliment for the wines of the region.

Emilia Romagna -- The Wines

Emilia Romagna's wines might be considered northern Italy's most eccentric, different on the whole from their neighbors', often facile in style but always refreshingly individualistic.

In Emilia the premier wine is Lambrusco, in frothy shades of purple to pink, made from grapes grown on high trellised vines, mainly in the flatlands south of the Po. Romagna's wines come primarily from the native Sangiovese, Trebbiano and Albana, the variety the accounted for Italy's first white DOCG. Lambrusco is produced in volume in the four DOC zones around Modena and Reggio, though few consumers abroad have tasted the wine in its authentic dry style. Most Lambrusco shipped away is amabile or sweet, while most of what is drunk at home is dutifully dry and more often than not DOC. Though there are historical precedents for both types, the dry is considered the unparalleled match for the region's rich cooking.

Even the hill wines of Emilia tend to be frothy. Vineyards in the foothills of the Apennines to the south render fun-loving whites made from Malvasia, Trebbiano and Ortrugo and zesty reds from Barbera and Bonarda. But there is a definite trend in the DOC zones of Colli Piacentini, Colli Bolognesi and Colli di Parma to make still and somewhat serious wines from such varieties as Sauvignon, Chardonnay, the Pinots, Barbera, Cabernet and Merlot. Natural conditions favor wines of depth and finesse, but markets seem to favor the lightweight wines.

Moving into Romagna, the plains of the Po basin between Ferrara and Ravenna are noted for fruit, vegetables and ultra productive vines, most of which are sources of blending wines. The hills south of Imola, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena and Rimini are known for wines from the native Albana, Sangiovese and Trebbiano all of which carry the name Romagna.

Albana di Romagna, which emerged in 1987 as Italy's first DOCG white wine, is most often dry and still with a distinctive almond undertone and occasionally some complexity. Albana's best expression seems to be as a richly sweet passito from partly dried grapes. The traditional semisweet and bubbly versions are usually consumed at home. Romagna's Trebbiano, distinct from other vines of the name, is almost always light and fresh, whether still or bubbly, with a fragility that makes it best in its youth.

The origins of Albana di Romagna are so ancient that it is no longer easy to distinguish between history and legend. It is reported that in 435 Galla Placida, the beautiful daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, arrived early one morning in a small village in the Romagna riding a white donkey. The princess's beauty astonished the inhabitants of the place, who, as soon as they saw her, offered her a large terracotta jug of the area's sweet and excellent wine, the Albana. Galla Placida was so taken by the wine that she remarked, "You should not drink this wine in such a humble container. Rather it should be drunk in gold (berti in oro) to render homage to its smoothness." Since then, the village has been called Bertinoro. And, at the court of Ravenna, Albana was thereafter drunk exclusively in precious goblets. Bertinoro is today an important center for the production of Albana. There is also a report that the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who was a guest of Countess Frangipane at Bertinoro, was another great admirer of the wine.

The favorite of Romagnans is Sangiovese, usually a robust red with a certain charm in its straightforward fruity flavors. But increasingly producers of Sangiovese are making reserve wines of greater depth of bouquet and flavor with the capacity to age gracefully.

A Little History of Sangiovese: Sangiovese is clearly a native variety but there are many hypotheses as to the exact origin of its name, which, in the local dialect, is Sanzvès. The most widely accepted explanation was advanced by glottologist F. Schurr, Tribune of the Wines of the Romagna, who died several years ago. According to Schurr, the denomination of the variety was derived from Monte Giove, a hill located in the vicinity of Sant'Angelo di Romagna. That argument is bolstered by a local legend, according to which the Cappuchin friars, who among their other activities cultivated vineyards, were entertaining an illustrious guest one day at their convent, which stood then, as it still does today, on a hill known as Collis Jovis near Sant'Angelo di Romagna. The guest greatly appreciated the friars' wine and asked them its name, which greatly embarrassed the clerics, since they had never thought to give it one. One friar who was faster on the uptake than the others promptly replied that it was called Sanguis di Jovis. Sanguis di Jovis was soon converted into Sangue di Giove, which was inevitably contracted to Sangiovese. The first historical accounts of the Sangiovese variety go back to the seventeenth century. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the "red wine of the Romagna," as it was then known, became popular as Sangiovese, in part because of some short poems written on the occasions of various wedding feasts by Pier Maria De' Minimi and Jacopo Landoni.

A bit more on Lambrusco: In the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena, Lambrusco vineyards extend from the slopes of the hills to the line of the Po River, which separates the district from Mantuan territory. All four of the existing Lambrusco DOC are found in that zone. Although it is of extremely ancient origin, Lambrusco was never well known or appreciated outside its production area until it achieved a remarkable commercial success in the United States in the seventies and eighties.

Despite the fact that it is now widely distributed, there are still many prejudices about the wine. Mostly know it as "cheap and sweet." Matters are not made easier by the widespread conviction that there is only one Lambrusco when, in reality, there are many, each different from the other in sensory characteristics and composition, whether in terms of the sub-variety used or in those of area of origin. Lambrusco has an extremely noble background. The wild vine from which the existing variety originated, called "labrusca" by the Latins, was known to the Etruscans and Romans. And its fossilized remains have been found in soils of the Eocene period.

The Romans made a bitterish beverage from labrusca grapes, which Pliny the Elder recommended for its supposed therapeutic effects. The elder Cato cited the productiveness of the Emilian vines, which he described as "tricentennary" because a single jugerum (about half an acre) yielded 300 amphoras of wine.

In Romagna, too, trends favor Sauvignon, Chardonnay, the Pinots and Cabernet. But many producers are devoting major efforts to developing superior strains of Sangiovese and Albana, while building interest in such rare local wines as the DOC white Pagadebit and red Cagnina and Bosco Eliceo Fortana.

Visit your favorite wine shop and ask your salesperson to recommend an Albana di Romagna, Sangiovese or Lamrusco from Emilia Romagna and share with your family and friends with some Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, Parma ham with a balsamic vinegar of Modena! Ciao!

Contact Peter Apicella at Feren Gift Baskets & Wine at 440-946-4180 or 800-551-2101 or visit ferengifts.com.