NV FUSO + Denny Bini 'SPUMA' Frizzante Emilia

Region: Reggio Emilia < Emilia-Romagna < Italy

Grapes: Lambrusco di Sorbara

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified Organic farming; sandy clay soils; field blend, co-fermented, direct press, aged in fiberglass; no filtering or clarification; 40ppm So2 added at bottling; 12.5% ABV

Winemaker: Denny Bini

FUSO is a collaboration project between natural wine importer Portofino with organic grower/vignerons in different Italian regions to produce "Italy’s natural and characterful daily drinkers from farmers and producers who are our long time friends and colleagues".  Here they partner with Denny Bini of Podere Cipolla, a small organic estate outside of Italy's cheese capital city of Reggio Emilia that produces just 6000 bottles per year from a single hectare.  Denny is one of a very few natural Lambrusco producers who re-ferments in bottle vs. secondary fermentation in autoclave, the more "modern" and industrial way that most is made today.

Because in Emilia, a revolution has quietly been brewing (or fermenting, often in bottle) for a while. After too many years of industrially-produced mediocrity, Emilia is now home to a small but growing cell of artisanal producers who are farming carefully and returning to this metodo ancestrale of their grandfathers: secondary fermentation in the bottle, without disgorgement.  Denny is one of the humble heroes of this renaissance-revolution, so we were stoked to see that he'd partnered with Portovino to make this fun Spuma, a festive pet'nat-meets-Lambrusco fizz.  A lovely orangey-pink (because that's how Sorbara presses out -- this isn't a rosé style), the wine is bone-dry and vibrant with alpine flowers, watermelon and early spring strawberries.  It has brunch, poolside sipping and aperitivo written all over it.