Camillo Donati Malvasia dell'Emilia Frizzante 2023

Press 4 Mix/White • September 2025 Direct Press Selection "Sparkling wines were born in Emilia because of our traditions of very rich, fatty cuisine. Pork, salumi, Parmiggiano Reggiano, butter: that’s how the frizzante style originated, as a way to cleanse the palate and help digest the fatty foods. Bubbles help with that process noticeably," said Camillo Donati in a 2011 interview with importer Kevin McKenna of Louis/ Dressner/McKenna. Donati is one of the best at keeping these traditions alive and accessible in their joyful expressions of frizzante wines. In 1992 Camillo left his job at a salumi factory and began making wines on a one-hectare plot his grandfather had purchased in the 1930s. He uses organic and biodynamic methods but does not see them as one-size fits all recipes. In the same interview he explained, "We practice natural viticulture, but go beyond being just organic and biodynamic in the sense that there are zero chemicals in the vineyards and zero chemicals in the cel