This trusty sparkling red is a perfect summer chiller

“Riunite on ice ... that’s nice” was once a familiar jingle in television ads from the late ‘70s and ‘80s. While it became a bit of a punchline in some circles, this tagline correctly captured a relatively unique distinction of Italian lambrusco. Where most red wines taste astringent and hollowed out when served cold, these lightly-sweet and slightly sparkling red wines made near Bologna are best when chilled. In some ways, lambruscos resemble the sweet and frothy Asti wines made with moscato grapes outside Milan; with both are unusually low in alcohol content, hovering in the 5% to 8% range by volume. But where moscato wines are white, candy-sweet, and highly perfumed with floral aromatics, lambrusco wines are //red, semi-sweet, and firmly centered on berry and cherry flavors.

More expensive artisanal lambruscos are hot commodities in fancy wine bars nowadays, but this trusty bargain brand is often overlooked by the cognoscenti despite how delicious it is.. This has more to do with wine’s role as a lifestyle and wealth signifier in the United States than anything else. In Italy or France, it’s more widely understood that there is a time and place for cheap wines/ as well as splurges, but a distinctive feature of American wine culture is its susceptibility to snobbery about which wines count as “good”.

This dynamic makes it easy to lampoon wines that make themselves too easy to love — like this lambrusco — and to snicker at its comfort with being served on the rocks. But as any fan of South Philly’s classic gravy joints can attest, Riunite lambrusco is still a staple on many of those wine lists and it’s not because they’re stuck in the seventies. It’s because this wine is also a particularly apt partner for anything served with an Italian tomato sauce. These days, the Riunite slogan has been modernized to “Just Chill.” That’s probably sound advice in more ways than one for those worried about what others might think about what they’re drinking.

Emilia-Romagna, Italy; 8% ABV

PLCB Item #5663 — $7.99 through May 31 (regularly $9.99)

Also available at: Moorestown Super Buy Rite in Moorestown ($7.49; moorestownbuyrite.com), Hopewell Super Buy Rite in Pennington (7.99; hopewellbuyrite.com), and Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del. ($4.99; totalwine.com).