Verona Wines: Amarone

Amarone della Valpolicella, or Amarone for short, is made also in Valpolicella area with Corvina Veronese, Rondinella and Molinara grapes. It is made with grapes that have been dried on racks for at least four months, bringing out their flavors and increasing the amount of sugar.
Since they have to undergo a drying process of few months, bunches used for amarone must be perfectly sound, with grapes not too closed so that air can circulate, without any bruises. The bunches selection process it's strictly done by hand, and requires experience and a careful eye. Bunches have to be lined in one single layer all in the same direction. Like many other traditional activities, also for the picking of the Amarone grapes, people who are able and willing to continue the tradition, often women, are becoming fewer and fewer. During the drying process also, it is required a meticulous attention and constant control of grapes, if mould develops they must be cut and thrown away.
Some producers are still using the old racks made of reeds, piled in old garrets once used also for the silkworm breeding, in the past a common activity in the area. Reeds have a better humidity absorption. Others producers prefer to use modern wooden or plastic boxes, which can be filled directly in the vineyards, avoiding the excessive handling of grapes, and easily brought in modern drying centers where temperature and humidity is carefully controlled. The perfume in the drying rooms between September and January is something that simply cannot be described.

The pressing of the grapes take place around January, in winter. Due to the cold temperature, fermentation process is very slow. After fermentation Amarone is aged for at least two years in wooden barrels. The use of the barriques is allowed, and some producers, using them achieved excellent results. The traditional method use big 80 or 100 hectoliters oak barrels where the aging of the Amarone is slow, with a less wine-wood contact surface so that the taste becomes more mellow and supple. According to the production rules it is allowed to sell Amarone three years after harvest but many wineries following the old tradition, prefer to leave the Amarone in barrels for five or more years. Beside giving the Amarone a better structure, such a long aging time will make the Amarone last longer, even thirty or more years.

Amarone is the fourth biggest seller in Italy, behind Chianti, Asti, and Soave. This fine wine has flavors of licorice, tobacco and dried fruits, and goes well with game and ripe cheese. Hannibal of Silence of the Lambs had his with fava beans. In the movie version, they had him drinking the more pedestrian Chianti wine type.
While some styles of Amarone can be very bitter (that's where the name comes from), new styles are more fruity.
Amarone can be drunk young, but it also age magnificently to a dark garnet for thirty years or more. A typical drinking age is 10 years.

The name "Amarone" in Italian means "big bitter". Since Roman time, in the area they used to make a sweet wine from dried grapes. Its name is Recioto. After drying the grapes on racks the fermentation process was stopped and the wine remained sweet and sometimes slightly sparkling but, sometimes, the fermentation slowly continued, the alcohol level rose, and in spite of an expected sweet wine, they had a strong, amaro (bitter) one: the Amarone.

Many Amarone producing wineries of the Valpolicella area are opened to the public. Grapes drying rooms and cellars with the huge oaks barrels can be visited, and their products can be tasted. Many wineries are in beautiful old buildings and villas surrounded by vineyards. Ask a tourist guide to book a winery tour and bring you there: