AMARONE IN VIRGINIA!

Amarone della Valpolicella

Amarone della Valpolicella, or Amarone for short, is created in the Veneto region of Italy. Originally there was only one legal region, or DOC, for the Valpolicella name. These wines are made with the Corvina Veronese, Rondinella and Molinara grapes. Two sub-groups emerged, though - recioto, which is a sweet dessert wine, and amarone, which is a dry red wine with great body.

Both of these wines are made with grapes that have been dried on racks, bringing out their flavors. In 1991 these two were granted their own DOCs. The land area encompassed by these three DOCs is the same, but the types of wine are quite different.

Amarone is the fourth biggest seller in Italy, behind Chianti, Asti, and Soave. This fine wine has flavors of licorice, tobacco and fig, and goes well with game and ripe cheese. Hannibal of Silence of the Lambs fame , of course, had his with fava beans. While some styles can be very bitter (that's where the name comes from), new styles are more fruity. Amarone can be drunk young, while still a ruby purple, but they also age magnificently to a dark garnet for thirty years or more. A typical drinking age is 10 years. Amarone should be served around 60 F.

AMARONE AND VALPOLICELLA IN DETAIL

OUR FAVORITE WINES FROM MASI: CAMPOFIORIN

(An abstract from the MASI web-site, which is available from the above link)

First class Valpolicella wine is produced from an ancient vinification system used in Verona and technically known as "refermentation".  Masi gave the name "Ripasso" to the wine resulting from this process and this term has been registered by their company. Campofiorin has uniquely been described as "a table wine of luxuriant size and complexity, the prototype for the new style of Veronese red" (B. Anderson). Since the first vintage released, 1964, the wine, made from the classic Veronese varieties (especially Corvina) has been refermented on the residual pomace of the dried grapes used for the production of Amarone. The advantage of this process was a major quality without extra costs: the tannins from the lees were rustic yet welcome to obtain more complexity. Today, the wine and its technique of production have been developed  with the aim of getting more pleasantness even if at some cost. From vintages 1983-85 the wine is refermented with a certain amount of lightly dried whole grapes (the same grapes used for Amarone). That means 70% of already fermented wine is pumped onto a 30% of semi-dried lightly pressed grapes. The semi-dried grapes while giving to the wine elegant and sweet tannins allow to get more structure and class. The semi-dried grapes, with their concentrated sugars, aromas and glycerine, trigger off an immediate second alcoholic fermentation that lasts 12-15 days, and which then continues until the fermentative processes have been completed. This enriches the wine in alcohol, in colour, in extracts and in soft and elegant tannins, as well as giving it new flavours and perfumes. 

2007 VILLA APPALACCIA AMARONE

After too many years of gestation, we finally have a promising vintage in which to make our own Amarone. We have 5, 600 ft rows of quadrilateral VSP trained vines (550) of Corvina Veronese vines which are carrying an enormous crop of 4-5 tons of fruit this year. These are probably the only Corvina growing a commercial crop in the USA. Corvina Veronese turns out to be a difficult vine to grow. First, it will not produce fruit on the first 3 buds of the prior year's growth, which means the fruiting canes must be both long and renewed every year. Second, the maturation of the fruit requires unique levels of sun and heat in order for the grape to mature properly mid-season. (We had never seen this with any other grape: in 2005, the vines had a wonderful looking crop of small brown "olives" instead of purple grapes!). This year things seem pretty good so I am daring to talk about the vintage before the "eggs have hatched".

The montage of images above represents the late season progress for 2 of the Corvina Veronese vines. You actually see one half of each of the vines as they have 4 arms, two in the foreground and two in the background. In mid-August the leaves closest to the fruit are removed to facilitate sun-warming (not really needed this year but who was to know how much heat and sun we would get!) By October 1, the grapes had reached the degree of maturity desired (24% sugar, soft tannins in the skins and most important, high acidity (pH 3.3, TA 8-10 range) to begin harvest. This is where it becomes interesting! In two prior years we had experimented with traditional drying of the grapes on tables (see files) or a "new-world" approach of allowing the grape clusters to dry on the vine by cutting the cane on which the fruit was attatched and leaving it to hang. With our warm climate, the inside drying had proven to be much too quick and the on-the-vine method was chosen. In the lower picture, dated October 3, the vines have been cut leaving only those canes required for training new canopy in the next Spring. These canes, still green of course, had their fruit removed and fermented to make a traditional Valpolicella-like wine. The green canes will use their foliage to generate more energy for the vine post-harvest up until frost, mid to late November.

In the picture above, you can see a close-up of the cutting process and the fruit retained on the dead canes and the now-absence of fruit on the canes selected for renewal of the trellis next season. Thedrying clusters will remain for 3-4 weeks, depending upon the weather. At that point they will have "raisined" and have very soft skins and 27-28% sugar content.

FERMENTATION OF CRUSHED GRAPES (MUST) AT 27% SUGAR

The crushed and partially de-stemmed product is very difficult to work with as the residual liquid is now about 30% of the total volume of solids in the fermentors. There is really nothing for it but to mash this mess with a lot of effort and frequently, in order to mix the yeast, yeast growth factors, in with the must if a true Amarone is to be made. In truth, we will probably go for the Campofiorin style of refermentation of the lighter wine on the crushed dried grapes. (to be continued)