From his family’s vineyards in the Montecchio Emilia, Roberto Maestri makes a handful of sparkling wines that equal the best in the region.

We first tasted Roberto’s wines at a small show in Roero put on by Roberto’s friend Luca Faccenda, with whom we also work. Roberto’s wines really stood out for their purity, texture, sense of place and overall deliciousness. We feel that good Lambrusco must be, above all else, highly drinkable; a perfect match for the local cuisine. Roberto’s wines are just so easy to drink and almost impossible to put down. A dangerous combination, to be sure!

Roberto works organically on roughly 5 hectares of vines sat on clay-gravel soils. He grows a variety of indigenous varietals, including Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Salamino, Gasparossa Lambrusco, Malvasia di Candia and Spergola, from which he makes Sparkling and a few still wines. He only uses wild yeasts and his bubbles are made the traditional way in Emilia, with the second fermentation completed in the bottle.

Roberto’s wines are deceptively simple, with eating well and good times in mind. Perhaps that is why they are the first wines we reach for time and time again to begin a meal.