Medici Ermete

Medici Ermete have made Lambrusco at Reggio Emilia since 1890, four generations of the same family, and they have done as much as anyone to rescue the wine's reputation.

That reputation needed rescuing. Lambrusco was exported in vast quantities through the 1970s and 80s in sweet, industrial form, and a generation came to regard it as a joke. The truth is rather different: Lambrusco is not one grape but a family of at least a dozen distinct varieties, it is native to Emilia, and made dry it is one of the most useful wines in Italy with the region's rich food. The acidity and light tannin cut through fat in a way still wine cannot.

Concerto, first made in 1993, is the wine generally credited with beginning the revival. Most Lambrusco is made by the Charmat method in tank; the estate also produces bottle-fermented versions, which is considerably more demanding.