Amarone della Valpolicella is one of the big Italian red wines. Amarone was born as a blend of three grape varietals indigenous to the Valpolicella area, Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara.
The grapes are hand-picked and carefully placed on trays, which are then put in the grape drying room - il "fruttaio" in Italia - where they undergo "appassimento" for 120-140 days.
The grapes are gently crushed and the highly concentrated must is collected and fermented. Unlike Recioto della Valpolicella, a dessert wine also made with the grape drying technique, Amarone is a dry wine.
Amarone is a full-bodied, structured, and complex wine, which needs at least 2 years of aging and can be made using big "botti" (Slavonian oak) or barrique (French Oak) depending on the winemaker's approach.
Traditionally, Amarone was aged in big "botti", a process resulting in rather dry wines - very far from the fruit-bombs that have become popular during the past 20 years.
Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG
The short version
Amarone della Valpolicella is one of the big Italian red wines. Amarone was born as a blend of three grape varietals indigenous to the Valpolicella area, Corvina, Rondinella, and...
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Natural Winemakers
Maria and Sepp Muster farm ten hectares of Demeter-certified biodynamic vineyards above Leutschach in Southern Styria, crafting textural, mineral whites from the region's distinctive Opok marl soil.
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Weingut Niklas is a family-run Alto Adige estate in Kaltern where Dieter Solva farms 7 hectares of calcareous mountain soils to produce precise, aromatic whites and structured Lagrein reds that have carried the family name for over 50 years.
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