Amarone (“ah-ma-RONE-eh”) is a very special wine produced in Italy’s Veneto (Venice) region. It is made using the centuries-old recioto method of picking the grapes late and then leaving them out to become partially raisined.
What Is Amarone?
Roughly translated, Amarone means “mo’ bitter.” As you may recall from my recent post on how language reflects our experiences, Italians are not opposed to descriptors such as “sour” or “bitter,” whereas Americans would not necessarily cleave to a wine described as such.
Some 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to visit an Italian winery that produces Amarone. What a treat to see the grapes being partially raisined. What an even bigger treat to taste the wine!
Amarone is a big, bad red wine with high alcohol content and ripe raisin and bitter almond notes. It pairs well with robust foods such as red meats and intense cheeses.
The wine’s intensity prompts wine makers to release it no earlier than five years from the vintage year, which allows it to mellow out a bit.
Is It “Mo’ Bitter?”
So is this wine really “mo’ bitter?” Well, yes, when compared to Amarone della Valpolicella, the name given to an Amarone whose fermentation is arrested midstream, leaving some residual sugar. Originally, Amarone della Valpolicella was more prolifically produced. Some say that Amarone was created by mistake, when the fermentation process was mistakenly allowed to continue for too long. When fermentation is arrested earlier, the resulting wine is sweeter, rendering Amarone della Valpolicella; when left longer, the literally “more bitter” Amarone results.
The Grapes in This Wine
Amarone is made up of three native Veneto red grapes:
- Corvina – This grape is the most flavorful and robust of the three grapes, and its thick skin protects against rot during the drying process. Some Amarones are made exclusively from this grape.
- Rondinella – A related offspring to Corvina, Rondinella produces a lot of juice, is resistant to grape diseases, and dries well.
- Molinara – This grape is being used increasingly less in the production of Amarone.
I would love to hear about your experiences with Amarone. Please share them here. Grazie!
As an independent wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I absolutely enjoy bringing a taste of the Napa wine country home to you one sip at a time. Whether you simply love to drink wine, seek a special personalized wine gift, or are in search of a new wine jobs opportunity as a wine consultant, feel free to contact me for a truly unique wine tasting experience!
Cheers,
Betty Kaufman, WineShop At Home
7 comments
Dear Betty, thank you for your interesting post. You can find a nice article about history of Amarone in this link : http://www.agraria.org/vini/amaronedellavalpolicella.htm . Unfortunately is only in Italian but thanks a translator you can have additional info about this.
I don’t know exactly what do you mean talking about “slow wines” (in Italy this is referred to Slow Food, an Italian organization (better, a philosophy) very popular to protect traditions in food, drinks and tasting behaviors. Anyway, we are proud of our Amarone TerreDiValgrande , silver medal Decater in 2011.
Best Regards
Raffaele Foglia
raffaele@terredivalgrande.it
Thanks Raffaele. I can’t wait to look at your article. I wish I understood Italian! I don’t know what slow wines means either. Somebody else used the term in their comment. I will need to do some research to see what slow wines refers to.
The two photos in the article are beautiful. I’m going to post them on my Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/winetastingsandmore. Thanks!
I came across you blog piece whilst trying to find out about Slow Wine, I am still none the wiser. As far as I can work out it is something akin to the Slow Food movement. However, I would pretty much classify most wine as Slow Wine, maybe apart from the real mass-produced factory stuff. The term certainly hasn’t caught on the UK
In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in my blog post about the Masi Amarone and the appassimento process. http://blog.farehamwinecellar.co.uk/2013/06/13/masi-wines-masterclass/
Slow Wine was a new term for me too. Gennaro Canafa kindly provided some insight on a LinkedIn group page. Here’s what he said: “More Information regards the Slow Wine project. One of the main aim is to protect the biodiversity of italian products (wines in this case). In The slow wine guide editors present vineries not only for their wines but for their culture, tradition and sustainability. Is a great project under the Slow Food concept. http://www.slowfood.it/slowine/“
Thanks for mentioned or lovely region Veneto!
You’re welcome! Di niente!