Cantine Lombardini has been producing wine for the past four generations and has always paid the utmost attention to quality, heritage and respect for traditions.
Desire to remain in the ancient town of Novellara, once under the rule of the Gonzaga family, testifies to this attachment to our roots. Way back in 1925, besides housing the first wine-making systems, the area in which Cantine Lombardini is situated was also the site of the historic Bar Roma and the town’s first public cinema. Thus a meeting place where people socialized, purchased and enjoyed wine while gossiping. A heritage maintained with effort and sacrifice, not to mention important investments in technologies with a low environmental impact.
In 1970, Cantine Lombardini decided to give up the vineyards they owned and concentrate on an accurate selection of the best grape blends as to vintage, so as to always maintain the highest product quality. Selecting musts is a complex, delicate art: an almost mystic ability allowing only those possessing wine-making experience and talent to recognize the best of each wine grape variety and to select it for the current year’s production.
“It was at the beginning of the ‘80’s that the first wagons, loaded with grapes, began to crowd our courtyard. There they waited until they had unloaded all those black clusters, protagonists of our crushing process. The excitement increased, the fragrance flooded the old town centre... everyone knew that the must was already at work in the Winery. After this, we decided to give up this picturesque phase of the process and preferred to select the best musts of the Wineries we knew and respected as custodians of the precious nectar. Everything has been dictated by our endeavour to maintain a constant and stringent quality policy. After careful tasting, confidence in one’s decisions will always be a natural gift employed by the experienced vintner who knows that he must never fall short of his customers’ expectations.”
Cantine Lombardini has turned must selection into a refined art. Only the best wine grape blends become Lombardini Lambrusco. Having their must accepted by Cantine Lombardini is tantamount to a sought-after quality certification for wine-growers.
Lombardini’s wine-making art commences as soon as the best musts arrive: a slow process according to tradition and small yet fundamental family secrets, continuous care throughout the different phases, knowing and measured use of the most wine quality-oriented technologies. The latest arrival, result of this production philosophy and downright passion for wine, is Signor Campanone: from selected hand-picked grapes – a masterly blend of Salamino and Sorbara grapes – pressed according to our own, exclusive method. Not to be found in supermarkets, this product is solely dedicated to wine shops, restaurants and private customers.
Wine for festivities and special occasions, Signor Campanone will also be available in a limited edition in sleeverate bottles: unique pieces, customized bottles in different packaging designed to enhance the tables of the finest restaurants.
The quality that lies in simplicity and tradition. This is the secret that generations of Lombardini family members have handed down as a set of rules that have made their wines unique and continuously successful for almost a century. Wines that journey from the lowlands alongside the Po to the ends of the world: like one of Zavattini’s stories which, having taken shape in the village tavern, reaches the heart of those who love the pleasure and quality of life.