Valpolicella Ripasso

'Ripasso' literarily means 'revision', is an old technique used by Valpolicella winemakers to enrich the normal Valpolicella wine with the flavors of the Amarone. After harvest in September, the best grapes are dried for four months before they are processed to become Amarone, normal grapes are vinified soon after harvest to make the normal Valpolicella. At the beginning of February, the five months old Valpolicella wine is put on the grape skins left at the end of the Amarone making process so that they can get some of the flavor of the Amarone. The resulting 'ripasso' Valpolicella is a medium bodied wine which stands between the normal Valpolicella and the Amarone.
In recent years, this technique has been elaborated and refined and some wineries now divide the harvested grapes for the Ripasso wine in two, part (70% circa) is vinified soon after harvest, while the remaining is left two dry for few months before being pressed and added to the previously made wine. This technique is usually called double fermentation process.