Lambrusco grapes were cultivated by the Etruscans around 700 BC. Fast-forward 2700 years, and lambrusco grapes have found legitimacy again! Lambrusco wine’s headache-inducing, ghastly decade or so, the 1970s, broke all sales records and was the Italian export champion. Riunite lambrusco was an incredibly successful Italian export that did no favors for the grape, and certainly none for the wine. Thankfully, it fell out of favor along with Portuguese Mateus, German Blue Nun, liebfraumilch and American Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill.
These days there are several celebrated Italian winemakers making terrific wine from the six varieties of lambrusco grapes at several wineries within Emilia Romagna. Lambrusco is now a hip choice among Italian folks all over Italy. We brought this vinegar to NYC in 2010 and have been devoted to it and championing its salad altering propensity ever since. We can't imagine what took us so long to discover it in the first place. We usually make our Lambrusco vinaigrette by combining any one of our favorite olive oils and this vinegar at a ratio of about 3 to 1 along with a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a smashed clove of garlic. (Whisk, drizzling oil in after other ingredients, or if you have an empty jar, shake it!) Or we just have it on the table, in a cruet alongside another cruet of olive oil.  Perfect for salads of all kinds.