I tasted Amarone for the first time in the Dutch province of South Holland in the small town of Hoornaar. Our host had recently returned from Italy inspired and made a sumptuous Italian-themed dinner complete with Italian vino. When the cork popped on the Amarone, I distinctly remember hearing angels singing in Italian, and the glow from the bottle was like the welcomed dawn.
The bonding.
At dinner, I was surrounded by Dutch intellectuals, lawyers from the Hague, an American doctor of philosophy, and Calvinist theologians with Lutheran leanings. You can only imagine the depth of the endless conversation on theology, law, and philosophy lasting late into the night and on to the wee hours of the morning! I would have felt alone with my little thoughts had it not been for my new friend Amarone Della Valpolicella! Amarone is a vino da meditazion or meditation wine that commands quiet, respect, and contemplation, even in a bustling location. Although surrounded by big thoughts and lofty ideas, Amarone and I meditated together, sip by sip, as if overlooking a beautiful seascape on a far-away dune in Zeeland.
The withering.
Amarone is from the viticultural zone of Valpolicella in the province of Verona within the large Veneto region. It is a dry-style wine made with the appassimento method used by the ancient Romans who produced sweet wines in their day. The appassimento method starts by hand-selecting bunches of loose clusters in late harvest time; the grapes are air-dried on wooden racks for up to one hundred twenty days. During this time, a natural withering or drying occurs, concentrating the grapes’ color, aroma, flavor, and weight, which are reduced by 45%. After the drying process, they are de-stemmed and soft-pressed, and the juice or must is fermented in stainless steel tanks, aged in oak, and usually not released for five years. The very ripe grapes and concentration of sugars make Amarone a high-alcohol wine, normally above 15% ABV.
The great bitter.
This labor-intensive and lengthy process results in a sumptuous red wine that is a star of Italian wine-making. Amarone has beautiful depth, complex layers, and notes of ripe dark-skinned fruit, raspberry, fig, spice, bittersweet chocolate, raisin, and fruit cake flavors with a long, persistent finish, nice acidity, and smooth tannin. In Italian, Amarone means the great bitter, a term applied in contrast to its cousin Recioto Della Valpolicella. The same method used to make Amarone is employed in making Recioto, a delicious red dessert wine. The difference is with Recioto; the fermentation is stopped before the yeast consumes all the fruit sugar, allowing residual sugar (RS) to remain in the wine.
The art.
Amarone is a blend, as are many of the world’s best wines. Blending wine is more of an art than a measured science, where different grapes contribute unique characteristics, making a richer, more complex entity. Italian grapes Corvina, Corvione, Rondinella, and Molinara are the principal grapes allowed in the blend by law. Corvina and Corvione add spicy red fruit, Rondinella adds floral notes, and Molinara contributes acidity to the blend. The time-tested blend and the unique apassimento winemaking process make for an extraordinary wine.
The voice.
You know your product is special when you need an ambassador. Marilisa Allegrini, the owner of Allegrini Winery, is the global ambassador for Amarone and the Veneto region. Her winery is the unquestioned benchmark producer of Amarone, and she is considered the international “Voice of Amarone.” In 2016, Allegrini Winery was awarded Italy’s Winery of the Year by the Italian food and wine magazine Gambero Rosso.
The images.
It was not until returning home that I enjoyed Amarone again, a bottle of I Quadretti; in English, this translates to an image or framed representation. As I sat alone sipping Amarone, reflecting on images of my travels, I thought about how fitting a name for this delicious meditation wine was.
by Wine Spectator
