From the atlas
Cantine Lombardini S.r.l
At A Glance
Producer: Cantine Lombardini S.r.l Region: Emilia-Romagna, Italy Village / Appellation: Novellara, Reggiano DOC Grape: Lambrusco Style: Frizzante sparkling red Signature Wine: Il Campanone Reggiano DOC Lambrusco Rosso Alcohol: 11% Serve: 8 to 10°C
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The Producer
Cantine Lombardini makes sparkling red Lambrusco from Novellara, a town in the Reggio Emilia province of Emilia-Romagna. Their wine is Il Campanone, a Reggiano DOC Lambrusco Rosso produced by the Charmat method. It is frizzante rather than fully sparkling, dark ruby with violet highlights, and built around a core of fresh red and black berry fruit at a measured 11% alcohol.
The house is a family-owned bottler with multiple generations in the Novellara town center, and Il Campanone is the bottle they are known for. It is a high-volume wine that competes on a judged international stage: the 2020 vintage earned a silver medal and 90 points at the International Wine Challenge.
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Place
Novellara sits in the Po Valley flatlands of Reggio Emilia province, in the northern arc of Emilia-Romagna. The Reggiano DOC is the appellation here, a designation that runs across the province and covers several sub-varieties within the Lambrusco family of dark-skinned grapes native to Emilia-Romagna.
The DOC shapes what goes into Il Campanone at the varietal level: Lambrusco grapes grown within the Reggiano zone. The flat, fertile plain produces Lambrusco with generous fruit and moderate natural acidity. That combination, dark berry character from the grape, freshness from the climate, and the frizzante effervescence from the Charmat method, defines the wine's weight and drinkability. At 7 g/L total acidity and 11% alcohol, the wine belongs to a style made for the table rather than the cellar.
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Soil And Site
The Reggiano DOC zone occupies the alluvial plain of Reggio Emilia, where the soil is deep and clay-rich with deposits carried down from the Apennine foothills. These fertile valley soils encourage the generous, fruit-forward character that defines the Lambrusco style in this zone: abundant, dark-skinned berry fruit and soft natural tannin rather than the leaner profiles found higher on the hillside slopes. The flat terrain and the continental climate of the Po Valley, warm summers and cool harvest nights, allow Lambrusco to ripen fully while keeping the wine's freshness intact.
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Story
The Lombardini family has operated from Via Cavour 15 in Novellara across four generations. The business began with Angelo Lombardini, who ran a bar and cinema in the town center before the operation shifted toward wine. By the time the current generation took over, the focus was fully on Il Campanone and the Reggiano DOC Lambrusco style.
That continuity at a single address across a century of Italian agricultural change is not a minor fact. Italian wine went through denomination reforms, cooperative consolidation, and repeated international reputation crises for the Lambrusco category in the twentieth century. The Lombardinis stayed in Novellara, worked the Charmat method, and built an operation that now produces approximately 800,000 bottles total. The decision to stay focused on one wine and one appellation, rather than expanding the range or chasing premium positioning, shaped what Il Campanone is: a high-volume, consistently made frizzante Lambrusco aimed at the everyday table rather than the collector's cellar.
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Vineyards And Cellar
Il Campanone is produced by the Charmat method, in which the base wine undergoes a second fermentation inside a pressurized tank rather than in individual bottles. The Charmat process preserves the fresh fruit aromatics of the Lambrusco grape directly: the short fermentation time and controlled temperature keep blackberry, raspberry, and cherry character vivid in the finished wine rather than developing the toasty, yeasty complexity associated with longer bottle contact. The resulting mousse is fine and well-integrated, with a gentle effervescence suited to the frizzante style rather than the more aggressive bubble of a fully spumante wine.
The wine is bottled at 11% alcohol, with 11 g/L residual sugar balanced by 7 g/L total acidity. The Charmat method and this sugar-acid balance are the two production decisions that define the wine's character in the glass: approachable and berry-forward, with enough acidity to keep it lively and enough residual sweetness to round the palate without tipping into obviously sweet territory.
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Wines
Il Campanone Reggiano DOC Lambrusco Rosso is the house wine and the only bottle covered by verified sources. It is a frizzante sparkling red, not a still wine and not a fully sparkling spumante. The distinction matters: frizzante carries lighter, softer bubbles, and the wine is intended to be poured cold and drunk young rather than aged.
The colour is intense ruby red with violet highlights, a visual cue to the Lambrusco grape's dark pigmentation. On the nose, the wine leads with blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, and black cherry, alongside delicate floral notes of violet, a slight herbal edge, and a touch of spice. The palate is described by the producer as dry in character, though the 11 g/L residual sugar gives it a rounded, approachable feel. Acidity is moderate at 7 g/L, enough to give the wine lift and balance the fruit without making it tart. The overall profile is berry-forward, youthful, and lively, built for immediate drinking at a cold serve temperature of 8 to 10°C.
The International Wine Challenge 2020 assessed the wine as having intense, juicy black currant aromas with wild herbs, a crunchy palate, and a long pleasant finish.
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In The Glass
Il Campanone opens with dark ruby color and a fine persistent mousse. On the nose, blackberry and blueberry come first, followed by raspberry, cherry, and a violet floral note, with a faint herbal and spicy undertone behind the fruit. The Charmat method keeps these aromas immediate and fresh rather than evolved.
In the mouth, the effervescence is gentle and well-integrated, softer than a Prosecco or Champagne, suited to the frizzante style. The fruit carries through the palate, ripe black cherry and strawberry alongside the darker berry notes from the nose. The 11 g/L residual sugar rounds the mid-palate, but the 7 g/L acidity runs underneath it and keeps the wine feeling clean rather than cloying. The finish is pleasant and fruit-forward, with cranberry and a light herbal note persisting after the wine has gone. At 11% alcohol and served cold, the wine has lightness and energy rather than weight.
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A Bottle To Understand It
Il Campanone Reggiano DOC Lambrusco Rosso is the one bottle here. It is a frizzante sparkling red made from Lambrusco grapes in the Reggiano DOC around Novellara, produced by the Charmat method, and built for the table rather than the cellar. Dark ruby with violet highlights, fine bubbles, and a nose of fresh blackberry, raspberry, and cherry. In the mouth it is rounded and lively, with enough residual sugar to feel welcoming and enough acidity to stay clean. Serve at 8 to 10°C. It works alongside cured meats, pizza, or the kind of pasta that benefits from a wine with some fruit weight and gentle fizz. The 2020 vintage won a silver medal at the International Wine Challenge. Buy a bottle of that vintage or the current release and start there.
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Anecdote
When the International Wine Challenge published its 2020 results, Il Campanone came back with a silver medal and 90 points. Lambrusco had spent the better part of two decades being filed under cheap and sweet outside Italy, the kind of wine that arrived in wicker bottles at American supermarkets and disappeared into sangria. The IWC judges wrote something different: intense, juicy black currant aromas, wild herbs, a crunchy palate, and a long pleasant finish. A frizzante Lambrusco from the Reggiano DOC, made by a family operation in the Po Valley flatlands, had placed among competitive sparkling reds from regions with far louder international reputations. The medal went on the shelf in Novellara, and the score went into the record.
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Final Word
Cantine Lombardini makes one wine with a clear job: bring a sparkling red Lambrusco to the table at the right temperature and get out of the way. Il Campanone is not a wine for cellaring or analysis. It is dark, berry-forward, fine-bubbled, and low in alcohol, built for drinking cold alongside food. The 2020 IWC silver medal confirmed what the style already suggested: the wine is well made at volume, honest about what it is, and worth having on the table.
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Sources
1. https://www.lombardinivini.it/i-nostri-vini/linea-il-campanone/il-campanone 2. https://bottleofitaly.com/en-us/products/reggiano-doc-lambrusco-rosso-secco-il-campanone-lombardini 3. https://www.internationalwinechallenge.com/canopy/beverage_details?wid=164827 4. https://www.cocktailguiden.com/vin/rott-vin/mjukt-barigt/il-campanone-reggiano-lambrusco-rosso-vino-frizzante-secco-8584401 5. https://www.vinovest.co/blog/reggiano-lambrusco