In the Lambrusco sparkling wine region there is an underdog grape waiting to be discovered by wine explorers: Uva Tosca, an ancient “mountain” red grape from the Emilia Romagna region in North Central Italy, in the area surrounding Modena. After nearly disappearing and then used occasionally in some red blends, it has become a driving passion for Irene Balim, a Ukrainian born woman winemaker who runs the small natural wine estate of Frignano, to revitalize the grape and show the potential uva tosca has when vinified alone.

Let’s learn about this forgotten grape which “lives” in the shadows of those making red sparkling wine Lambrusco. First, let’s take a moment to explore and understand a little bit of the terroir of the region. 

The Terroir of Emilia Romagna

Emilia Romagna sits at the foot of the Apennine mountain range in the Po Valley, with lush grassy plains and high altitude peaks. The highest altitude vineyard sites here are rugged so the vines need to be hearty. It is a region near and dear to Vero’s heart, with founder Sheila Donohue calling it home for over 20 years, so much so that she wrote this love letter to the region after devastating floods last year. While we’ve talked a lot about the wine, food and experiences to enjoy in Emilia Romagna, the geographic makeup of the region deserves to be looked at more closely.

Terroir is often attributed just to the physical characteristics of an areas, such as the soil, elevation, slopes, bodies of water, and climate. But did you know that terroir also has a cultural element? It is the people that grow the grapes, make the wine, and the people that drink the wine. Terroir is also the grandma who rolls out the thinnest sheet of pasta dough, working it with the power of her forearms into a silky gossamer pile of fresh spaghetti. It is also her mother, who taught her the recipe and specific technique. It is also all the women who handed it down before them. Terroir is the people who are of the place - the people who make and remake the place and pass it down again and again.

The Emilia Romagna region is a mecca for food culture and this, too, is part of its terroir. It is the birthplace of many Italian delicasies, like:

• traditional balsamic vinegar & parmeggiano reggiano cheese;

• tiny tortellini pasta cooked in a clear, luscious broth called, Tortellini in Brodo. The best part of this dish is actually the broth, not the pasta, if you use a real Bolognese nonna’s recipe, like this homemade broth recipe we snagged;

• Plus there are many other traditional pasta dishes like Passatelli, also great in brodo;

• and many other treats like, Gnocco Fritto (fried bread) which is usually smeared with a delicious whipped pork fat called Battuto di Lardo.

Emilia Romagna has super old universities, with the oldest one in the world that has been in operation since 1088 in Bologna. Soon after, in 1175, Modena founded its university along with Reggio Emilia. Emilia Romagna is a region full of medieval cities, representing a mix of both young ideas and old transitions that continue on. It is history and family and tradition, that is born anew with each vintage. This is all proof of the rich cultural heritage of the region. Emilia Romagna’s terroir is a complex puzzle of many different pieces.

Honing in on Modena, where Uva Tosca is from, it is also the birthplace of Luciano Pavarotti, Enzo Ferrari and his luxury sports cars, and acclaimed soccer player Luca Toni.

Terroir is thought and feeling, mist and sunlight, stones and dirt, wildflowers and wind-born pollen, and everything that is of “the place”. Terroir is context. It is the amalgamation of everything that makes a place alive; in actuality, in memory and within the imagination.

The context of both Modena and the entire Emilia Romagna region is rich with the old and new amalgamation of life:

• It is the legacy of Pavarotti and Ferrari and all the people who love them;

• it is the locals who drank the fizzy red Lambrusco wine and many other traditional wines of the area

• it is the country folk who have vineyards in their backyards and make wine in their cellar;

• it is even the tiny sip of wine that was given to a grandchild who remembered the bright flavor, the sparks on their tongue, and carried on the tradition for their generation and the next.

This is also terroir. And for wine, these cultural elements are the most important pieces of the terroir puzzle. 

A Born Again Grape

Uva Tosca was first written about in 1674 by the agronomist, Vincenzo Tanara where he described the Uva Tosca grape as making a pleasant almost spicy dry red wine which was “very healthy for you.” Fast forward to 2024, unfortunately we are not allowed to claim that a wine is very healthy, but if it was considered healthy way back when, why is Uva Tosca today a rare grape? As with many grapes, they were a victim of the post phylloxera fallout in Europe, meaning it was abandoned after phylloxera hit.

Uva Tosca (sometimes called just Tosca since “uva” means grape in Italian) is considered a mountain grape, since it thrives at high altitudes. Grapes grown in higher altitudes of the Modena province have to be hearty enough to thrive in rugged and often wind blown conditions. Uva Tosca has a somewhat sparse berry structure, with small and intense fruit that stands up against some of the more harsh weather conditions of the hillside sites.

These are sites like where the winery Frignano sits. Owned by Ukrainian-born woman in wine Irene Balim, the winery is approximately 2000 feet above sea level in the Val Secchia area of the Modena province. The soil there is made up of chalky clay, silt, and sand. This is an optimal ripening environment for the uva tosca grape. Frignano’s high altitude vineyard helps to contribute to the grape's balanced sugar and acidity levels, making for a wine with an easy drinking style, that can be paired with many different kinds of foods. Thanks to the high level of acidity, it conveniently pairs with many traditional dishes of Emilia Romagna. After all, have you noticed there is a common thread in the traditional foods of the region we mentioned earlier: fat! Fatty foods and high acid wines are a match made in heaven!

Irene of Frignano was determined to make a 100% Uva Tosca wine so to show the complete expression of this high acid and fruity grape. She called it Sgarbato which is a term used to describe someone who ruffles your feathers, implying that it is a wine that will wake up your tastebuds!

Sgarbato is technically a rosé wine sparkling in your glass, even though its pale ruby color is deeper than the ubiquitous rosés of Southern France. Because of its sparse and small berry structure uva tosca is usually a grape that is used for blending in order to round out yields and to add acid and bright fruit to wines with other grape varieties. This 100% Uva Tosca Italian wine makes for a unique finished wine that embodies the essence of Emilia Romagna's winemaking heritage.

This Frignano wine is a compelling cranberry color, and it can be compared to having cranberry juice as a sparkling wine, albeit, with a steely complexity and clean savory, spiciness. Sgarbato is a fruit forward wine with cranberry, ripe red cherry, and strawberry. This sparkling wine Italian style is bottled under a crown cap, perfect for a picnic or family gathering or just any given Wednesday evening when you are in need of a perk.

All of Frignano’s grapes are harvested by hand. Their Uva Tosca wine is then vinified using the ancestral method which means the finial fermentation is done in the bottle, thus trapping the CO2 and making the wine sparkling (another term for this type of wine is pétillant-naturel or a pet nat wine). The wine is left unfiltered with its lees or Col Fondo (with the bottom), adding to its complex flavor profile. When you see its deep and gorgeous color in the clear bottle you are going to instinctively want it in your glass - while you tilt back, hopefully on a picnic blanket, alternating bites of rich cured meats and sips of wine that sparkle on your tongue, allowing each cleansing sip to convey its utterly fruity and refreshing fizz.

In short, it is basically an Italian summer in a glass. 

Taste Underdog Grapes like Uva Tosca

For those of you that know our curation style, you know that we love to support small producers and bring you unique fun wines, especially when they come from exciting underdog grapes! Whether it be natural wines, small production wines, or rare grapes, we love to search them out. And you can enjoy these curations by trying a selection of different wines and different winegrowers from our portfolio. We sell to both businesses and consumers across the US:

• We are enlarging our network of distributors around the country. Reach out to us if you are interested in distributing our wines.

• We sell to wine stores and restaurants in certain states - contact us if you would like more info.

• We do corporate gifts and sommelier guided wine tastings. Email us and we’ll tailor unique and sustainable corporate gift ideas.

• If our farm crafted wines and olive oils are not in your local shop or restaurant, you can buy wine online here in our VeroShop, and we’ll ship it to you, including wine gifts, and we ship to most states. If you want to sip on the Italian Summer that is Sgarbato without the plane ride, we can ship it directly to your home, no travel required!

• We also have an award winning wine club for true wine explorers that are seeking to continually discover unique, sustainable and authentic small production wines they never had. These are wines selected by our sommeliers and curated for each box.

Written by Cassandra Fisher