Lambrusco substitute

Best substitute

Barbera or Bonarda

Use the same amount as the lambrusco you are replacing

Best for risotto

Close match

Northern Italian reds with the same combination of high acidity, deep purple colour and soft, undemanding tannin, so a pan sauce made with them has the same bright, juicy quality; they are still rather than fizzy and usually fully dry.

Other lambrusco substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Valpolicella or young Chianti
Close match
Use the same amount
Tart, cherry-flavoured and light on tannin, which is exactly the profile Lambrusco brings, though they are a touch more savoury and dried-herb scented and lack Lambrusco's slightly jammy sweetness.
What changes
Best for
ragu and tomato sauces, risotto, braised sausage, pork and veal, mushrooms
Widely available and a genuinely good match. If your Lambrusco was going to be an amabile or dolce bottle, add a teaspoon of sugar per half cup, since these are firmly dry and the dish will otherwise taste sharper than intended.
3Pinot Noir or Beaujolais
Different taste
Use the same amount
Both are light-bodied and low in tannin, so they reduce cleanly without turning bitter, but they are paler and more delicately red-fruited, so a sauce made with them looks lighter and tastes less inky.
What changes
Best for
risotto, chicken and rabbit, light braises, pan sauces, mushrooms
Safe and forgiving. The main visual difference is colour: Lambrusco stains a risotto a striking purple and Pinot Noir gives a gentler brick-pink. If the purple is the point of the dish, use Barbera instead.
4Brachetto or sparkling sweet red
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Fizzy, red and off-sweet like a Lambrusco dolce, with a more perfumed strawberry-and-rose aroma and usually even lower alcohol, so it is closest of all for drinking and slightly more floral in cooking.
What changes
Best for
drinking with prosciutto and salumi, spritzes, poached or macerated fruit, desserts
This is the substitute to reach for when the fizz and the sweetness are the point, such as serving alongside charcuterie or macerating strawberries. In a savoury pan sauce it is too sweet and too perfumed unless you cut other sugar.
5Concord or red grape juice plus red wine vinegar (alcohol-free)
Different taste
½ cup grape juice plus 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar for ½ cup Lambrusco
Unusually good here, because Lambrusco genuinely tastes grapey and slightly sweet in a way that most reds do not, so juice is closer than it would be for a Cabernet; what is missing is the alcohol's aromatic lift and any tannic grip.
What changes
Best for
alcohol-free cooking, risotto, braises, sauces for sausage
Add the vinegar off the heat so it stays fruity rather than harsh, and taste as you go, since juices vary a lot in sweetness. For a non-alcoholic drink, sparkling red grape juice with a squeeze of lemon over ice is a fair impression of a chilled Lambrusco.
6Sparkling rose or dry prosecco with a splash of red
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount with about 1 tablespoon of light red wine added per cup for colour
Keeps the bubbles and the low alcohol but gives up nearly all the red fruit and tannin, so on its own it tastes like a different drink; the splash of red closes some of the gap in colour and berry flavour.
What changes
Best for
spritzes, serving chilled with salumi, sangria, cold soups and granitas
Only worth doing when the fizz is essential and you cannot find a sparkling red. In any cooked dish, skip this and use a still red instead, since carbonation contributes nothing once heated.

What is Lambrusco?

Lambrusco is Lambrusco is a lightly sparkling red wine from Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, made from the Lambrusco family of grapes, with tart cherry and blackberry flavour, purple foam, modest tannin, fairly low alcohol around 11 percent, and a sweetness level that ranges from bone dry secco to distinctly sweet dolce.

Cooking tips

Once Lambrusco is heated, its fizz is gone within seconds, so do not spend effort finding a sparkling substitute for a cooked dish. What Lambrusco actually contributes to a risotto or a pork braise is bright acidity, purple colour, a slightly grapey fruitiness and very little tannin, and any tart light red will do all of that.
Read the sweetness on the label before you match a swap, because this is where most Lambrusco substitutions go wrong. Secco is dry, amabile is off-sweet and dolce is properly sweet, and a lot of the Lambrusco sold outside Italy is amabile or dolce. If your recipe was written around a sweet bottle and you use a dry Barbera, add a teaspoon of sugar per half cup to keep the balance.
Lambrusco's low tannin is a feature, not a shortcoming. It means you can reduce it fairly hard without the sauce turning bitter and drying, which is exactly why Emilian cooks use it with fatty things like sausage, pancetta and pork shoulder. If you substitute a tannic red such as Cabernet or Shiraz, do not reduce it as far, and finish the sauce with a knob of butter to soften the grip.
Save the bubbles for the table. A cold glass of dry Lambrusco with prosciutto, mortadella or a rich lasagne is the whole reason the wine exists, and it should be served properly chilled, around fridge temperature, in an ordinary wine glass rather than a flute.
An open bottle loses its fizz within a day even with a stopper, but it remains perfectly good for cooking for another three or four days in the fridge. Flat Lambrusco is not spoiled Lambrusco, it is just a light red, and it is exactly what you want for deglazing a pan of sausages.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use regular red wine instead of Lambrusco?

Yes, in any cooked dish, as long as you pick a tart, light-bodied one such as Barbera, Valpolicella, Pinot Noir or Beaujolais rather than a big tannic Cabernet or Shiraz. The fizz makes no difference once heated. The one thing to adjust is sweetness: most reds are fully dry, so if your recipe assumed an amabile or dolce Lambrusco, add about a teaspoon of sugar per half cup.

Can I just leave it out?

In a ragu or a braise, more or less, since there is other liquid doing the work: use the same volume of stock and add a teaspoon of red wine vinegar at the end to restore the brightness. In a risotto al Lambrusco, where the wine provides both the colour and the defining tart-fruity flavour, leaving it out gives you a plain risotto and you should substitute another red instead.

Is Lambrusco sweet?

It depends entirely on the bottle. Traditional Emilian Lambrusco secco is genuinely dry and quite tart, while the internationally famous style from the 1970s and 80s was sweet, and a lot of what is on supermarket shelves is somewhere in the middle at amabile. The label will tell you: secco, semisecco, amabile or dolce, from driest to sweetest.

What is the difference between Lambrusco and prosecco?

Both are lightly sparkling Italian wines, but Lambrusco is red or rose, made from black grapes, and tastes of tart cherry and blackberry with a little tannin, while prosecco is white, made from Glera grapes, and tastes of pear and white flowers with no tannin at all. They are not interchangeable in a red-wine dish, and prosecco cannot supply Lambrusco's colour.

Is Lambrusco good for cooking or should I use something better?

It is genuinely well suited to cooking, and inexpensive bottles work fine. Its high acidity and low tannin mean it reduces into a bright, juicy sauce rather than a bitter one, which is why it is traditional with sausage, pork and risotto in Emilia. There is no advantage to spending more, since the aromatics and fizz that distinguish a good bottle disappear in the pan.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Lambrusco substitute

Other lambrusco substitutes

2Valpolicella or young Chianti

3Pinot Noir or Beaujolais

4Brachetto or sparkling sweet red

5Concord or red grape juice plus red wine vinegar (alcohol-free)

6Sparkling rose or dry prosecco with a splash of red