The bottles that define Valpolicella: what they are, who makes them and what they cost.
The iconic bottles that define Valpolicella: what they are, who makes them and what they cost.
Cà la Bionda's Riserva from the Ravazzòl vineyard, spontaneously fermented and held eight years in a single large cask.
Tasting notes: Made only in the vintages when optimal ripeness coincides with the acidity that guarantees longevity. What strikes the estate about the wine is its elegance and finesse.
Masi's elegant cru Amarone from Campolongo di Torbe. Cooked fruit and cinnamon over ripe cherry, plum and a bitter-almond signature.
Tasting notes: The elegant cru of the Masi range, impenetrable ruby, intense and complex in cooked fruit and cinnamon, then rich, warm and round with ripe cherries and marasca, cooked plums and a rounded bitter-almond signature.
Viviani's selection Amarone, made only in chosen vintages. Sour cherry and dried rose over eucalyptus, liquorice, chocolate and velvety coffee.
Tasting notes: A luminous ruby Amarone whose nose runs from fleshy sour cherry and blackberry conserve through withered rose petals and sweet spice into eucalyptus, liquorice and chocolate shavings, then turns to noble chocolate and velvety coffee on a palate that is warm, soft and extraordinarily long.
Begali's Riserva Amarone from Monte Cà Bianca, given at least four years of ageing before release.
Tasting notes: The estate's Riserva, garnet red with an intense, ethereal and spiced nose and a minimum of four years of ageing behind it, from the double-selected bunches of the Monte Cà Bianca site.
Brigaldara's Riserva, a cask selection made after four years of ageing rather than from a dedicated cru. Unique to each vintage.
Tasting notes: A cellar selection rather than a single site: after about four years of maturation the casks that show the longest ageing potential are isolated and left longer, so every Riserva is unique to its vintage and to the vineyards behind it.
Falezze's Riserva Amarone from vines over eighty years old, released as a numbered collector edition with hand-painted labels.
Tasting notes: A deep ruby red of important structure and a fullness of aroma the estate calls immediately recognisable for complexity and elegance, with a share of Oseleta giving forest-fruit aromatics and pronounced tannin.
Le Ragose's cru Amarone Riserva from the Caloetto terraces at the top of the estate. Two to three thousand bottles a year.
Tasting notes: Extremely powerful and intense with a concentrated flavour of black cherry conserve, dense and very mature yet still velvety, full and dry, with the tannin load for a long life in bottle.
Monte Dall'Ora's Amarone from vines married to trees on the Castelrotto hill. Dried grape, refined spice and balsamic notes.
Tasting notes: Intense red with wide legs in the glass from the higher alcohols, recalling dried grapes on the nose with shifting, articulated scents closing on refined spice and balsamic notes, then fleshy, enveloping and extremely persistent in the mouth.
Musella's unfiltered, unfined Amarone, five years in untoasted oak. A low-intervention bottling the estate presents as a meditation wine.
Tasting notes: The estate's attempt to vinify Amarone in the most natural and traditional way possible: a hundred days of drying, hand destemming and crushing, indigenous-yeast fermentation in an oak truncated-cone vat with daily hand punch-downs, then five years in untoasted 700-litre oak with no filtration and no fining.
Nicolis's Riserva Amarone, made only from the best vintages. Dried flowers, balsamic herbs, clove, tobacco, cocoa and leather.
Tasting notes: Intense garnet, rich and marked with dried flowers and fruit, balsamic herbs, cloves, tobacco, cocoa and leather, then full, structured, velvety and persistent, with what the estate calls a three-dimensional progression on the palate.
Novaia's Riserva Amarone from the Le Balze cru at 300 metres in Marano. Jammy red fruit, coffee, chocolate and tobacco after four years of ageing.
Tasting notes: The Riserva from the Le Balze cru: deep garnet, intense in ripe red fruit and jam with the marks of appassimento, spice, coffee, dark chocolate, tobacco and goudron, and a generous, velvety, sapid palate closing on almond and cherry jam.
The estate Amarone of Roccolo Grassi at Mezzane. Cherry, plum, tobacco and aromatic herbs with sweet but present tannin.
Tasting notes: A very intense ruby Amarone of great structure and softness, with cherry, small red fruits, plum, spice, tobacco and aromatic herbs on the nose and the same aromas returning in the mouth, where the tannins are very sweet but present and give the wine length and depth.
Marco Speri's Amarone Classico, spontaneously fermented over ninety days and aged four years in Slavonian oak. Sour cherry, plum and spice.
Tasting notes: Force and balance together: ruby with garnet reflections, sour cherry, plum and spice on the nose, complex, enveloping and dry on the palate, harmonious and elegant and made to age.
Speri's only Amarone, from the Monte Sant'Urbano hill at Fumane. Dried fruit and ethereal lift over a full, warm, dry frame.
Tasting notes: Intense garnet red with an ethereal scent of dried fruit, then full, warm, enveloping and dry on the palate, a wine the estate describes as important and of rare elegance that lends itself well to ageing.
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Peak wine-travel season in Valpolicella is spring through autumn, with harvest the standout window.
classified-growth and grand-cru estates require booking days to weeks ahead; smaller family domaines often take walk-ins midweek.
most estates open 10:00 to 17:00 by appointment, often closed Sunday and Monday.
tipping is not expected at tastings; buying a bottle from the cellar door is the customary thank-you.
If you only open one bottle, open Cà la Bionda Riserva Ravazzòl Amarone della Valpolicella Classico by ca-la-bionda. It is the wine most associated with Valpolicella.