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108 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 Morning Love, LAMBRUSCO STYLE REGION: Emilia-Romagna WINESTASTING: Albinea Canali's Ot- tocentonero, FB Lambrusco, and Pennarossa were served during a casual walkaround recep- tion and light breakfast. FACTS The three principal grapes in Lambrusco are Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lam - brusco Salamino, and Lambrusco Grasparossa. Only a small proportion of Lambrusco is made via the metodo classico (traditional method) or the metodo ancestrale (ancestral method). Teacher's Notes "The Albinea Canali FB Lambrusco is made metodo ancestrale, the way wines were made in the old days: fermented in the bottle, unltered, and living on its own yeast. The little town of Sorbara makes Lambrusco in a lighter color, but don't get tricked by that, because this is a wine that withstands real Emilia-Romagna food—the region where pork is king. Albinea Canali has been around since 1936 and they specialize in Lambruscos. All the beautiful enzymes at the bottom of this bottle help us to digest dishes like mortadella and prosciutto. This wine revital - izes your taste buds." —Luciano Castiello New Heights: THE ALTA LANGA DOCG Italy's Newest Sparkling Appellation REGION: Alta Langa DOCG WINESTASTING: The current release of the 2014 Cuvée Aurora Rosé; the recently disgorged 2015 Cuvée Aurora Rosé; and special bottlings of the 2015 Cuvée Aurora Rosé (before disgorgement) and the 2016 Cuvée Aurora Rosé (still in the process of bottle-aging). Made obvious by the differences in color and texture, this was a demonstration in vin - tage variation and the impact of yeast on the texture of wine. FACTS The vineyards in the Alta Langa DOCG are planted on hills at a minimum of 250 meters or higher (820 feet) above sea level. Alta Langa DOCG wines must be made from a minimum of 90% hand-picked Pinot Noir (Pinot Nero) and/or Chardonnay. They are also allowed to contain a maximum of 15% of the previous year's wine. Alta Langa wines must be vintage-dated and are required to spend a minimum of 30 months on the lees. Riserva, meanwhile, must spend at least 36 months on lees. (For comparison, Champagne is 12 months and Franciacorta is 18.) Professor's Perspective "The Alta Langa is very young denomination, but behind it is a very old tradi- tion. In the early 1990s, a group of producers got together and planted some experimental vineyards of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, only with clones speci- cally meant for the production of high-quality sparkling wines. They rst planted 50 hectares and the experiment yielded such positive results that in 2002 it was recognized with its own DOC. In 2008 it was then upgraded to a DOCG, so we're at the very tip of the pyramid for quality production of our wine. Today there's about 150 hectares under vine." —Alberto Lazzarino, Directing Winemaker, Ban Piemonte "The Cuvée Aurora is an excellent example of Alta Langa. We use 100% Pinot Noir. The color comes from a two-hour maceration of the grapes before pressing. This technique allows us to extract more aromatics, but the beauty of this is that we'll never have the same color from one vintage to the next. A lot of producers will blend white and red to get the right color, but we make the choice to not allow this to give this wine character that reects the vintage." —Lazzarino PHOTO: ROBERT GOMEZ PHOTO: RYAN DEARTH Alberto Lazzarino and Lars Leicht at the University of Denver. PHOTO: ROBERT GOMEZ PHOTO: RYAN DEARTH Luciano Castiello, National Ambassador Wine Educator for Castello Banfi, greets the somms with a splash of Albinea Canali FB Lambrusco at the University of Denver.