Amarone for Christmas: 30 great bottles to try
‘The undeniable feel-good factor with Amarone makes it a top pick for Christmas,’ says Michael Garner.
Though Amarone may be easy to like, how to get the best from a bottle is not always quite so straightforward. Two major reasons behind its inexorable rise in popularity – a high alcohol content and its inherent sense of sweetness – can make the wine difficult to match with food.
Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 30 great Amarone for Christmas
Traditionally, Amarone was seen as a vino da meditazione, a wine to be enjoyed on its own, perhaps as a post-prandial tipple, much in the same way that a glass of port can round off a celebratory meal. As the wine to accompany a cheese board, it has few peers, and legendary producer, Romano Dal Forno believes Amarone is the perfect wine to enjoy with friends in a convivial social setting.
In order to meet burgeoning demand over the last couple of decades, production figures have soared, leaving producers with something of a dilemma. From a pre-millenium annual average production of around eight million bottles, to today’s – 18 million, Amarone is no longer a niche wine.
A drier approach
The current trend across a growing number of wineries is to reduce sugar levels to just a couple of grams per litre in order to make the wine more versatile and take on a wider role with food. Its rich, round and velvety palate with those enticing, spicy, dried fruit aromas and flavours that remain its distinguishing features immediately bring thoughts of game-based, festive dishes to mind. A slice of game pie or a hearty venison casserole, perhaps? Winter is certainly the right time of year for Amarone!
Amarone production
Production regulations allow Amarone to contain up to 12g/l of residual sugar at the minimum 14% abv (rising incrementally with higher alcohol levels) which, when coupled with an alcohol content of up to 17 or even 17.5% abv can result in something that simply overpowers most dishes.
A unique production methodology means that fruit destined for Amarone is dried for months on either the traditional bamboo racks know as arele, customarily on the winery’s upper floor for improved ventilation, or – more likely these days – in easier to sterilise plastic crates stacked high in large warehouses under carefully controlled atmospheric conditions.
Either way, up to 40% of the grapes’ weight is lost via evaporation of their water content through the skins, leaving highly concentrated juice which is then fermented slowly over many weeks as the sugars are gradually transformed into alcohol.
A protracted period of ageing, usually in wood, follows. Regulations state 24 months of ageing as a minimum, though many choose to extend the stay for several additional years until the wine approaches full maturity. Likewise, the bottled wine is frequently stored longer still at the cellars before release. Inevitably, the costs of such a painstaking process are high, a factor reflected in the final price to the consumer. Premium wines from hallowed names like Dal Forno, Masi or Quintarelli are correspondingly expensive and demand to be opened on special occasions.
A question of provenance
A further consideration when choosing the right bottle of Amarone is clearly the wine’s provenance. Three distinct production areas are designated: Classico (just east of Lake Garda), the valley of Valpantena (immediately north of Verona), and, further east again, Valpolicella Orientale, as it has now become known.
Many but by no means all of the finest examples of Amarone come from the Classico area which, as a rule of thumb, show an intense, spicy, aromatic style. Wines from the Valpantena valley, with its slightly cooler growing conditions, tend to be just a little lighter yet finely-balanced, while Amarone from Orientale can often be the fullest and most powerful style as temperatures further from the Garda lake tend to be a little warmer.
To take advantage of Amarone’s new-found glory status, a whole raft of new names has appeared in recent years, many of them smaller-scale, ‘artisanal’ producers making wine in highly limited quantities. Similarly, the movement towards the production of organic and, more rarely, biodynamic wines is on the increase as Italy cements its position as world leaders in the production of wines with ‘green’ credentials.
All things considered, the undeniable feel-good factor with Amarone makes it a top pick for Christmas!
Michael Garner’s 30 Amarone for Christmas
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