Tasting - Riunite Lambrusco

Name: Reunite Lambrusco
Variety: Region: Campegine

Country: Italy

Year: unknown

Price: $9.99

Winery review: Lambrusco is a true symbol of northern Italy. It’s an ancient wine made from a grape variety that has been unique to the Emilia region since before the Roman empire. Made in a frizzante style, it is a lightly sparkling, fruit-forward wine with some floral notes. Its lush, crisp, and semi-sweet taste makes it the perfect crowd-pleaser at parties and go-to for intimate moments of joy and delight (https://www.riunite.com/our-wines/).

Wine Folly: Lambrusco is a red grape from the vitas labrusca family. They have flavors like strawberry, blackberry, rhubarb, hibiscus, and potting soil. They tend to be dry, medium-light bodied, medium tannins, and medium-high acidity. They’re best served chilled and pair well with pizza and burgers (https://winefolly.com/wines/lambrusco/). 

My review: The light fizz to this wine and very fruity, sweet flavor remind me of a fizzy juice more than a wine. It’s only 8% ABV, so that shouldn’t come as a shock. There’s not much aroma, but the flavors are bold. It’s similar to cranberry juice (not the concentrate stuff, the real stuff) from the flavor to the consistency and right down to the tannic component. Actually, now that it’s flat and a bit warm, you could probably pass this off as cranberry juice to me. Now that cranberry is in my head, I can’t taste anything else. Maybe general red fruits? Not bad, but if I wanted something this sweet, I’d drink an Izzy. Not much use having this be alcoholic when it’s so low and unbalanced. I can’t think of a single situation I would buy this bottle for. Maybe introducing someone to wine for the first time? That seems criminal though. Start with a Moscato like the rest of us.