Ancelotta wine guide

Ancellotta is a red grape variety essential for the production of wine throughout the Reggio Emilia and Modena area, it is a backbone, produced since 1300, yet hardly anyone knows about it.

Ancellotta is a particular grape variety: you will find it in many wines from Emilia-Romagna, but never in purity. The reason is that Ancellotta is an ancillary vine, used mainly as a blending grape to give warmth, color and structure, but since it does not have many aromas and low acidity, it is never vinified in purity.

And if you think about it, it is the ideal complement to compensate for the characteristics of Lambrusco, which is quite the opposite, that is acid, fragrant, yet quite lean and slender. With the contribution of Ancellotta, Lambrusco finds the square of the circle, without distorting its fresh and pungent aromas. And that is why you will find the Ancellotta in a thousand blends with all Lambrusco: with Maestri, with Grasparossa, with Sorbara and also Lambrusco Mantovano. Some also use it to balance the stormy acidity of many Piedmontese Barbera, but we are talking about a typically Emilian grape.

The only wine in which the Ancellotta is the protagonist and stands out, but not in solo quantities, is the Reggiano Rosso DOC, where it must be regulated at 60%.

History of the Ancellotta grape

Ancellotta is a vine belonging to the large and populous Lambrusco family, which over the centuries has been selected to favor its innate characteristics of power and great coloring strength, at the expense of aromaticity. In Emilia, it is known as Anzilota or Lancellotta, a name that derives from the family of Tommasino Lancillotto, true promoter of the vine, who in 1300 favored its cultivation throughout the Reggio Emilia area.

Characteristics of the black Ancellotta grape

There is not much to say about this wine, it is a black grape used above all to give color and strength to more acidic wines, a function that Colorino also has in Tuscany. The Ancellotta has few aromas, just aromas of red fruit and flowers. On the palate, it is structured, warm and very alcoholic. The color and pigmentation are due to the rather thick skin and very rich in bloom. You will never find it in purity, but in Emilia, it is one of the great resources of local enology.