The drying process, called “appassimento” in Italian, gives body, roundness and a great personality to this wine. It is produced in a beautiful hillside vineyard in Valpolicella, near Verona, at the foot of the Dolomite mountains.
Historical notes: in the forties a little wooden cask of Recioto della Valpolicella, a sweet wine produced with dried grapes, was forgotten for a long time. This wine, then had time to referment its residual sugar transforming them into alcohol and becoming dry. When this wine was tasted, it was not sweet anymore, but it was bitter, in Italian “amaro”. So Amarone was born.
Harvest – end of September/beginning of October, with perfect healthiness of the grapes, allowing them to reach a good ripeness, but still with a thick crispy skin and a good acidity.
Hand harvest, drying of the grapes for several months, de-stemming, fermentation/maceration at controlled temperature. Then the wine refines for 24 months in new barrique, followed by a long refinement in bottle.
Intense ruby colour, deep scents of ripe cherry, prunes, blackberry; important structure, thick velvety tannins and a wide bouquet.
Store in a cool and dark place, keeping the bottle in a horizontal position. Its structure and complexity enable the wine to improve during maturation in the bottle, which can last up to 35 years, reaching the top after 20-25 years from the vintage.