Rare Lini Lambruscos Have Landed -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Four bottles of wine on the wall ...Photo courtesy Vino, Italian Wine and Spirits

We’re taking the loss of the spaghetti-slurping Soprano family hard, but comfort, in the form of an ultrarare specimen of Northern Italian wine, is at hand. Lambrusco, a sparkling wine from a red grape of the same name, comes from Emilia-Romagna, where its refreshing effervescence cuts the richness of hearty regional dishes. Until recently, a méthode champenoise variety — fermented in the bottle, that is, like Champagne — was not known to have been poured in New York, let alone stocked on shelves.

Vino, Italian Wine and Spirits reps Jeremy Parzen and Jim Hutchinson scoured wine country for new styles of the old-world grape, settling on the family-owned label Lini, and brought back Lambrusco Metodo Classico “Corrigia Brut” (the Italian term for champenoise). It’s now on offer at the shop as well as at nearby i Trulli. (Nicola Marzovilla owns both, as well as Centovini.) They’re also carrying Lambrusco Bianco “Labrusca,” a white vintage you won’t find outside of Italy, and Lambrusco Rosé “Corrigia Cerasa,” which the producer’s young spokeswoman, Alicia Lini, prefers, telling us she finds it molto chic. New Jersey, we feel your Italian influence waning already. — Alexandra Vallis