Italy · Lambrusco Country (Modena & surrounds)

Zanasi Società Agricola S.S.

Four-generation Modena hill estate farming clay-and-sand Apennine foothills since 1900, making Lambrusco di Sorbara from estate fruit with fresh cherry character and lively acidity.

The producer

Zanasi Società Agricola S.S. farms vineyards in the foothills and hills of the Modena Apennines and makes all its wine from estate-grown grapes. Based at Località Cavidole in Castelnuovo Rangone, the estate sits where the land climbs away from the Po plain toward the first Apennine ridges. Marco Zanasi runs the operation today with his wife Mara, drawing on the methods his grandfather Bruno built across decades. Marco's brother Matteo works in finance but contributes to the family business alongside him.

The modern estate took shape in 1978 when Bruno Zanasi, with his children's support, purchased 11 hectares from Count Ranuzzi Dei Bianchi of Bologna, then expanded with further parcels near Castelnuovo and Castelvetro. The vineyards carry clay soils with veins of sand, face east into morning sun, and are managed with short pruning to concentrate fruit in smaller crops and between-row grass cover to sustain soil health. Ca' Vedole Lambrusco di Sorbara is the estate's confirmed wine: violet-red, cherry-forward, dry to off-dry, with fresh acidity that keeps it light and food-ready.

Known for

Lambrusco di Sorbara from Modena Apennine clay-and-sand hillside vineyards

Notable facts

The story

Eight Barrels and a Cart

In 1900, Luigi Zanasi was working the fields like most men in the Modena countryside when he decided to make wine on the side. He converted a small farmhouse into a cellar, lined it with eight wooden barrels, and filled them with roughly 50 hectolitres of wine. Then he loaded the wine onto a cart, put a horse in front of it, and drove to the taverns in the nearby villages to sell it. He had no dedicated winemaking operation, just eight barrels and a regular delivery route. The taverns kept buying, and Luigi kept filling the cart. That cellar and that cart are the beginning of what the family now describes as more than a century of winemaking.

From the atlas

Zanasi Società Agricola S.S.

At A Glance

The Producer

Zanasi Società Agricola S.S. farms vineyards in the foothills and hills of the Modena Apennines and makes all its wine from its own grapes. The estate is based at Località Cavidole in Castelnuovo Rangone, a village in the province of Modena where the land climbs away from the Po plain toward the first ridges of the Apennines. Marco Zanasi runs the operation today with his wife Mara, drawing on the methods and priorities his grandfather Bruno established over decades of building the estate. Marco's brother Matteo works in finance but contributes to the family business alongside him.

The fourth generation of a family that has made wine here since 1900, Zanasi occupies a specific corner of Emilia-Romagna: not the flat, fog-prone lowlands associated with mass-produced Lambrusco, but the hillside terrain above Modena where the soils carry clay and sand and the vines face east into the morning sun.

Place

Castelnuovo Rangone sits in the province of Modena, where the Apennines begin their rise south of the Po valley. Zanasi's vineyards climb into that hillside country, positioned in the foothills and lower hills rather than on the plain. Eastern exposure means the vines receive morning sun and cooling afternoon shade, a pattern that slows ripening and holds acidity in the grapes through the growing season.

Lambrusco di Sorbara is a DOC centred on the Sorbara plain to the north of Modena, an area whose flat, alluvial character differs from the Apennine foothill terrain where Zanasi farms. The estate's Ca' Vedole label carries the Lambrusco di Sorbara name, and Vin Journalen confirms Zanasi as its producer. The precise relationship between the Apennine parcels and the appellation's geographic perimeter is not documented in available sources.

Soil And Site

The vineyard soils are clayey with veins of sand, a combination the estate describes as typical of the Modena Apennines. Clay retains moisture and slows drainage, helping vines through dry summers, while the sand channels bring variation in texture and drainage across individual parcels. Eastern exposure gives the sites a consistent orientation toward morning sun, which promotes gradual, even ripening. No precise vineyard area is confirmed beyond the original 11-hectare purchase in 1978 and the subsequent acquisitions near Castelnuovo and Castelvetro.

Story

The family account begins in 1900, when Luigi Zanasi was working in the fields and began making wine on the side. He converted a small farmhouse into a cellar, filled eight wooden barrels with roughly 50 hectolitres of wine, and sold it to village taverns by horse-drawn cart. It was small, practical, and local: wine made between harvests and delivered direct.

The estate as it exists today took its modern shape in 1978, when Bruno Zanasi, with support from his children, purchased 11 hectares of agricultural land from Count Ranuzzi Dei Bianchi of Bologna. The purchase gave the family a proper vineyard base and turned what had been a sideline into an estate operation. Bruno built on that foundation, acquiring additional parcels near Castelnuovo and Castelvetro over the following years.

Marco, Bruno's grandson, now manages the company. His approach draws on Bruno's accumulated knowledge and on the practical decisions about land, farming, and production that Bruno made across his career. The family has held the estate for more than four decades since that 1978 purchase, and all the wines continue to be made from fruit grown on its own land.

Vineyards And Cellar

Zanasi's vineyard management is built around controlling vine output at the source. Short pruning limits the number of buds left on each vine after winter cuts, which directly reduces the number of clusters each plant carries through the growing season. Fewer clusters means the vine concentrates its energy into a smaller crop, sharpening fruit concentration and ripeness at harvest.

Between the vine rows, the estate maintains a grass cover rather than bare cultivated soil. The grass sustains the microbial life and small fauna in the topsoil, competing with the vines for surface moisture and pushing roots deeper. All grapes used are estate-grown, and the family monitors the full cycle from vine care and harvest through vinification, storage, ageing and bottling.

Detailed cellar practices for the sparkling wines, including fermentation vessel, temperature regime, and mousse method, are not confirmed in available sources.

Wines

Ca' Vedole Lambrusco di Sorbara is the confirmed wine in the estate's range with a named grape identification. It is a sparkling red made from Lambrusco di Sorbara, the variety historically grown across the Sorbara plain northwest of Modena. The wine is violet-red in colour. On the nose it gives cherry and fresh red fruit. On the palate the fruit sits in a dry to off-dry register with lively acidity that keeps the wine from feeling heavy or sweet-toned. The mousse is present without dominating the fruit.

The full range beyond Ca' Vedole is not documented in available sources. No further grape varieties or labels are confirmed.

In The Glass

Ca' Vedole Lambrusco di Sorbara opens with cherry and light red-fruit aromatics, the kind of direct, clean fruit character associated with Lambrusco grown for freshness rather than concentration. In the mouth the wine is alive: the acidity is prominent, cutting through whatever sweetness the residual sugar contributes and finishing without weight or length. The mousse integrates with the fruit rather than lifting it. The palate sits in the dry to off-dry zone, making it more food-friendly than the sweeter, heavier Lambrusco styles produced lower in the Modena plain. Nothing lingers long on the finish; the wine is built for the table.

A Bottle To Understand It

Ca' Vedole Lambrusco di Sorbara. This is a sparkling red made from Lambrusco di Sorbara on clay-and-sand Apennine hillside land. The colour is a clear violet-red. The nose leads with cherry. The palate is dry to off-dry, with fresh acidity that keeps the wine light and the finish clean. It is not the soft, sweet Lambrusco sold in supermarkets; the acidity and the hillside setting give it a crispness and a directness that reads more like a serious red wine that happens to sparkle. Pour it with salumi, pasta al ragù, or anything from the Modena table it was made for.

Anecdote

In 1900, Luigi Zanasi was working the fields like most men in the Modena countryside when he decided to make wine on the side. He converted a small farmhouse into a cellar, lined it with eight wooden barrels, and filled them with roughly 50 hectolitres of wine. Then he loaded the wine onto a cart, put a horse in front of it, and drove to the taverns in the nearby villages to sell it. He had no dedicated winemaking operation, just eight barrels and a regular delivery route. The taverns kept buying, and Luigi kept filling the cart. That cellar and that cart are the beginning of what the family now describes as more than a century of winemaking.

Final Word

Zanasi is a Modena hill estate built over four generations on clay-and-sand vineyard land above the Po plain. The family's Lambrusco di Sorbara, Ca' Vedole, carries fresh cherry fruit and lively acidity that sets it apart from the flat-grown, sweeter styles most drinkers associate with the name. The estate makes wine from its own fruit and has done so since Luigi Zanasi filled his first eight barrels in 1900.

Sources

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