Story: Amarone della Valpolicella | Classic

Ruby red, sometimes with garnet nuances, an incredibly complex bouquet of flowers, red and dark ripe fruits, sometimes dominated by plum, cherry and blackberry notes, then jam again. Dense and concentrated, with a long finish of dark ripe fruit, toasted hazelnuts or mineral notes of graphite and slate. The palate is dense and concentrated, expansive, persistent, elegant and intriguing, with predominant notes of cherries preserved in alcohol and pleasant, characteristic bitter notes that have given the wine its name (amaro = bitter). Amarone della Valpolicella is the only wine made from dried grapes that is also drunk with food. Due to its unusual genesis, Amarone is a superlative wine to which compromise is alien: Either this wine knows how to delight, or it is rejected. His fans he inspires - in an epochal way.

The Amarone is the most original of all great Italian red wines, because this wine is identified not only with an area - Valpolicella - and with the autochthonous varieties Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, but above all with the production technique that prevents the drying of the grapes. This labor-intensive process gives Amarone della Valpolicella its outstanding personality, unique in the world. The production area has an ancient oenological history, the three grape varieties have been selected over the centuries and the method of making Amarone is more than 1,500 years old. Despite this evolution, Amarone della Valpolicella was not successfully sold until less than 50 years ago.

It was only after the Second World War, from 1953, that Amarone was consistently built. The beginning was undoubtedly made by the House of Bolla, which at that time launched a wine called Recioto Amarone della Valpolicella: through a targeted and consistent marketing campaign to strengthen the appellation, Amarone was introduced. The other producers in the area did not immediately recognize the potential of this wine, which they had known about for centuries. Consumers were by no means faster: it was not until the end of the second millennium that they recognized Amarone as one of the great Italian red wines.

Like Champagne, Amarone is composed of three grape varieties, albeit completely different ones: Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara. This is by no means the only similarity: in Champagne, the addition of Pinot Meunier has been reduced over the years, as this grape variety is a weakness in the vineyard compared to the others. The new discipline of the DOCG designation for Amarone is similar: it expands the permitted grape varieties with some subspecies (such as Corvinone or Oseleta) and provides for the optional use of Molinara in the vineyard. - Gerardo [TS06/23]