Lambrusco Republic

Some will say: who doesn’t know it? And yet, in the great majority of cases, people believe they know the real Lambrusco, when in fact they know nothing about it.
Mario Soldati, Vino al vino, 1970

With Fabio Altariva, Christian Bellei, Gianluca Bergianti, Anselmo Chiarli, Antonio Giacobazzi, Vittorio Graziano, Filippo Marchi, Alberto Paltrinieri, Antonio Previdi and Luciano Saetti. And with the innkeepers, winemakers and drinkers of the province of Modena. A series by Andrea Mignòlo.

It has been called a thousand things: the farmers’ wine, the industrial wine, the Italian Coca Cola and even the humble Champagne of the plains. And yet, to this day, nobody really knows what lies behind all the masks Lambrusco has worn.

Across the three episodes of the series, a portrait emerges of an elusive wine. Loved by the people of Modena like one of the family and ignored, when not mocked, by the wine elite. Able to conquer world markets and to lose its identity on the road to commercial success. Trapped in a word that overflows with meanings and can no longer hold them all.

Lambrusco Republic is not a classic documentary, full of exhaustive explanations and perhaps a few verdicts on the wines, complete with a top-10 ranking. Rather, it is a story full of contradictions, gaps and missteps. But also full of revelations and joy. Just like Lambrusco.

Episode 1 – Il Lambruscomio
“But this isn’t Lambrusco”: it’s the line Filippo Marchi hears most often when he hands someone a glass. From homemade bottle refermentation to the autoclave of the 1950s, from the American boom of the 1970s to the return of a new generation of winemakers: the recent history of a wine people think they know.
With Filippo Marchi, Anselmo Chiarli, Antonio Giacobazzi and Antonio Previdi.

Episode 2 – La leggiadria della collina
Working the hills is exhausting. Low yields, endless ups and downs and a grape, grasparossa, that tests even the most seasoned cellar master. The old road of large volumes no longer leads anywhere; the new one has yet to be mapped.
With Vittorio Graziano, Anselmo Chiarli, Fabio and Fausto Altariva.

Episode 3 – Le vertigini della Bassa
On the plain, genetics has bound together two grapes at opposite poles: sorbara, the fragile king of Lambruscos, and salamino, its great working-class sidekick. Family stories a hundred years long and young winemakers trying new paths. In the glass, the foam cheers the heart and reveals something missing: what do we really know about these wines?
With Filippo Marchi, Antonio Previdi, Gianluca Bergianti, Luciano Saetti, Christian Bellei, Alberto Paltrinieri and Vincenzo Venturelli.