Emilia-Romagna is a rich, fertile region of northern Italy, and one of the country's most prolific wine regions – more than 136,000 acres (55,000ha) were under vine in 2010. At 150 miles (240km) wide, it spans almost the entire width of the northern Italian peninsula and is sandwiched between Tuscany and Marche to the south, and Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto to the north. Long, narrow Liguria is its sixth and final neighbour, and all that prevents Emilia-Romagna from being the only Italian region with both an east and a west coast. Emilia-Romagna's viticultural heritage dates back as far as the seventh century BC, ranking it among the older of Italy's wine regions.

Vines were introduced here by the Etruscans and later adopted by the Romans, who used the Via Aemilia road (after which the region is named) to transport wine between its cities. The vine varieties used here for many centuries were of the Vitis labrusca species rather than the Vitis vinifera used around the world today. Emilia-Romagna's famous Lambrusco varieties are derived from the Vitis labrusca species.

Today, about 15% of wine produced in Emilia-Romagna falls under the region's 22 DOC titles, and only a tiny fraction under its two DOCGs. This is much higher than Italy's prolific southern regions such as Puglia and Sicily, where that figure is closer to 4%, yet much lower than in Veneto, where 25% of all wine is DOC quality or higher.