Amarone 101: everything you wanted to know

Amarone 101: everything you wanted to know (but were too afraid to ask)

Amarone may be a famous wine, but it is also a complex and mysterious one, and the subject of much mystified enquiry and confused faces. Fortunately, the internet has provided us with many of your most urgent and vexed questions, and we will do our best to answer them here. So it is: everything you wanted to know about Amarone (but were too afraid to ask anyone except the internet).

What is Amarone della Valpolicella?

So, let’s start off with a big obvious one – what the hell is this stuff, anyway? Well, it’s a red produced in the Veneto region of the north of Italy, made from grapes which have undergone a special drying process to increase the body, alcohol and flavour concentration of the resultant wine. It is, justly, considered a star of both its region and the whole of Italy, and is one of the world’s most prized big reds. For more info, feel free to check out our article on how Amarone wine is made.

Is Amarone a grape or a region?

Neither! It is in fact the name given to the wine that has been made according to these specifications, made from certain grapes in the Valpolicella area of the Veneto. (For more on the method, click here!)

Is Amarone a dessert wine?

Without wanting to tell you when to drink whatever you want – no, it is not a dessert wine. However, the modern Amarone della Valpolicella was derived from a historic sweet wine that is still made in the region today: Recioto della Valpolicella.

Is Amarone a fortified wine?

No, but you can see why someone might think it is! For clarity, a fortified wine is any wine whose alcoholic level is boosted by the addition of spirit (usually some kind of brandy), the most famous of which are probably the Andalusian sherry and the Port wine of the Douro.

Sherries usually clock in at 15.5% alcohol (the lighter fino and manzanilla styles) or 17-22% (the weightier amontillado and oloroso, for instance); the former is trivially easy for Amarone to reach, while the latter, though obviously enormous, is just about touchable at the low end of the scale. That’s the level of alcoholic power we’re dealing with in Amarone, and achieved all under its own steam, without any additions.

What is Amarone similar to?

Beyond being a big red wine? Very little. You can say that other bold reds with relatively high acidity will necessarily have something in common with Amarone, for instance the Sagrantino of Umbria or the Madiran of southern France. However, these wines are also considerably more tannin-heavy than Amarone tends to be on balance, while Amarone also outstrips them considerably on alcoholic content.

So what about superhigh-alcohol wines? Well yes, there are certain Australian shirazes, for instance, which have topped 16,5% and even 17%, while much Châteauneuf du Pape has, especially in recent years, reached similarly eye-watering ABVs. But, to turn the tables, both of these examples, though certainly balanced in acidity terms, rarely reach the remarkable zinginess that even many monster-level Amarones reach – and, once again, we find that tannins tend to be rather more pronounced in those examples than you find in Valpolicella’s finest.

The fact is that the appassimento technique, with the grapes particular to the region, makes a pretty-much unique wine with very few correspondents. That said, it’s fair to call it a must-try if you’re a fan of big red wines, but don’t be surprised if it really isn’t like anything you’ve had before.

What is the flavour profile of Amarone?

Varied, is the one-word answer! Amarone is a style with quite a lot of range, and different winemakers will prefer different aspects of what it is possible to bring out from the wine.

However, within this variation there are certain things that are generally always true: Amarone is a big red wine, high in alcohol, and of necessity will likely be rich and powerful; it is nevertheless relatively high in acidity as well, and so much of its fruit flavour will be a little zingier than in other similarly-sized reds (think raspberries); younger wines will be more about the fruit, and more obviously powerful, while older, more aged wines will mellow out and develop in subtlety and complexity; in Amarone, those subtleties and complexities tend to take certain forms, from the prominent balsamic note in some leaner, more elegant examples to the cigarbox smokiness you often find in more powerful ones.

Beyond this, of course, there is myriad elaboration – every palate is different and, naturally, you will find different people responding with as much variagation as bottles will differ one from the other, even of the same wine from the same vintage.

But Amarone has an identity, and that identity is, broadly speaking, very noticeable and very strong. So what about superhigh-alcohol wines? Well yes, there are certain Australian shirazes, for instance, which have topped 16,5% and even 17%, while much Châteauneuf du Pape has, especially in recent years, reached similarly eye-watering ABVs. But, to turn the tables, both of these examples, though certainly balanced in acidity terms, rarely reach the remarkable zinginess that even many monster-level Amarones reach – and, once again, we find that tannins tend to be rather more pronounced in those examples than you find in Valpolicella’s finest.

The fact is that the appassimento technique, with the grapes particular to the region, makes a pretty-much unique wine with very few correspondents. That said, it’s fair to call it a must-try if you’re a fan of big red wines, but don’t be surprised if it really isn’t like anything you’ve had before.

Is Amarone high in tannins?

Basically: yes! Tannins, the bitterish chemicals found in wine skins, stalks and oak barrels (as well as in tea!) which are responsible for that famous drying-in-the-mouth sensation, are quite prominent in Amarone, and it’s important that they are. The presence of tannins is what wine people mean when they refer to ‘structure’, and it is vitally important that wines high in alcohol are ‘structured’ sufficiently, or the wine will taste and feel aimless, flabby, perhaps over the top in unbalanced fruitiness. The tannins help balance it all out, and keep it all together.

And it’s a good thing too that the appassimento process, which means such an increase in alcohol, also concentrates the tannins in the grapes. Corvina (the major grape of Valpolicella) is not naturally an enormously tannic grape, and in fact makes for wonderfully refreshing lighter reds on its own. After drying, everything is more dense, everything is in higher doses and concentrations, and so as the alcohol goes up, so do the tannins with it. Thus is Amarone capable of the same equilibrium as its fresher cousins, as well as the same tannic intensity as other famous big reds like Priorat or Chateaneuf-du-Pape.

How much is a bottle of Amarone wine?

Usually, a fair amount! Amarone isn’t cheap to make, and expensive to make right, and this is reflected in the prices. You can expect to start at about €30 at the lower end, with prestige botttles comfortably commanding prices in the hundreds.

Why is Amarone so expensive?

Well, first of all the process is expensive and risky. Specialist equipment is required to execute the drying procedure properly, and all manner of things can go wrong during it. Not to mention that Amarone can only be made with the very best fruit, which is costly to farm and costlier to buy. Finally – and perhaps most importantly – the fact that the wine is made from juice squeezed from dried grapes means essentially more grapes used per bottle. In the end, given the immense production costs involved, it’s sometimes surprising that Amarone isn’t more expensive than it is!

When should I drink Amarone?

Whenever you like! But let’s just say that, if you’re finishing the bottle, it’s better to stick to the weekend, or any other time you don’t have to be up too early the next morning…

But assuming the question is about bottle-ageing, we can refer the questioner to the answer given above. If, however, the question really is about situation and setting, well, let’s say that Amarone is rarely a casual working lunch sort of wine. It’s a wine that demands time and attention, a touch of longueur and languor and space to breathe. This writer’s best Amarone experiences have tended to be slow, drawn-out evenings when the world stood still and every nanogram of flavour and aroma could be extracted, considered, discussed (above all discussed).

In short, you should drink it when you have a moment to stretch as wide as it will go. Those are the unforgettable Amarone evenings.

How do they make Amarone wine?

As mentioned, first the grapes are dried for a good long time, then fermented for a really long time to maximise all that alcoholic content. If you want to learn more, check out our post on how Amarone Wine is Made.

What grape makes Amarone?

Amarone della Valpolicella, like all the wines of the region, is generally a blend, of which by far the most important is the grape corvina, responsible for the characteristic bitter cherries flavour, as well as the majority of tertiary flavours such as smoke and leafiness. Rondinella and molinara are also usually present, generally adding acidity and perfume, and corvinone (a grape similar to corvina) is allowed to substitute the main grape to a certain degree. It is, however, corvina, the undisputed star of the region, on which the wine’s reputation rests.

Who invented Amarone?

Surely nobody could have invented this most classic, most antique of wines, passed down from generation to generation, each drop imbued with the wisdom of the ancients?

Well, actually, they could have and indeed did, and more’s the point remarkably recently. Recioto is ancient, sure, sweet wine derived from dried grapes being among the oldest vinifying techniques, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that, as tastes changed towards the dry end of the spectrum, a man called Adelino Lucchese at Cantina Negrar had the bright idea to not throw out fully-fermented Recioto, but instead try and make it drinkable. The rest is history.

What does appassimento mean?

It is simply the name of the drying process. Wines made from it are known as passito, sweet or dry (not to be confused with ripasso, of course!).

For how many months are the grapes dried for Amarone?

The appassimento technique is at the heart of Amarone’s wine identity in a way that cannot be said for any other major dry wine label in Europe (raisinification being more associated with sweet wines). As a result of this, unlike in other areas, there are quite specific rules and regulations around the process in Valpolicella, with the DOCG label stipulating a minimum of 60 days drying out. Slowness is crucial – forced drying might well result in an uneven final semi-raisin, with an imprecise moisture level or unintegrated polyphenolic compounds. For this reason, many winemakers go well beyond the mandatory (almost) two months, going as long as 100 or even 120-plus days! It’s a risky option, as the longer you expose your fruit the greater the chance it has of developing ruinous faults, especially from fungus. But for the skilled appassitore, who knows their way around a fruttaio, the rewards are well worth the hazards.

What yeast is used to ferment Amarone?

Well, this is a thorny one. Yeast (in case you don’t know) is the name given to an unbelievably enormous range of microscopic fungi, whose interactions with humans range from life-threatening infections to astonishingly useful applications in medicine, food (i.e. to make bread rise) and drink, where they are responsible for converting sugar into carbon dioxide and – most importantly – alcohol.

So much most people know. However, it perhaps isn’t appreciated just how stupefyingly various yeast types (or ‘strains’) are. As of yet about 1,500 individual yeasts have been identified, belonging to a wide variety of subspecies – the most important of which for our purposes is the genus known as Saccharomyces. This group of yeasts also known as ‘sugar moulds’ are, as the names suggest, most closely associated with sugars, and interact with wine in a variety of interesting ways (in addition to the fermenters, the infamously finicky Brettanomyces yeasts, with their capacity to enrich or spoil, are members of this family). The most commonly used in fermentation is the yeast known as Saccharomyces cerivisiae, but others contribute too.
However, there’s another complication here, in the form of the choice open to winemakers: to choose yeast or to go natural? Because we’ve only known about yeast for under two centuries thanks to Louis Pasteur; before that, wine occurred semi-naturally, given that these yeasts form on the surface of the grape skins in the wild. As a result, many winemakers feel that the local types of yeast have a particular affinity with the grapes that grow there; others take the view that being the most chemically precise yields the most perfect results.

So what difference does a yeast make? Well let’s look at Amarone. Research has suggested that a succession of yeasts are collectively responsible for fermenting the jewel of Valpolicella, each of which contributing something different. First, a strain of Saccharomyces uvarum which, although dying off at a certain alcohol level, is responsible for the presence of a remarkable amount of glycerol chemicals, which contribute a smooth sweetness that masks the so-called ‘alcohol burn’ effect; and just as well, because it’s after that that the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains kick in, and it’s those which carry Amarone all the way up to its famed alcoholic power. Both, furthermore, contribute to the low volatile acidity and intense floral and fruity aromas of the resulting wine. For this reason, most great Amarone producers favour this spontaneous (albeit temperature-controlled) fermentation.

What is Ripasso?

Another method employed for making red wine, this one almost unique to Valpolicella! The Amarone process leaves a lot of leftovers – grape skins, stems etc – and, keen to waste nothing, producers in Valpolicella will take some especially good regular wine and ‘repass’ it (i.e. macerate) over them. This gives the wine more body, more structure, more concentration, more oomph. For more, check out our post on how the Valpolicella Ripasso is made.

Is Ripasso a ‘baby Amarone’?

Over the years, Ripasso has had a lot of nicknames due to its status as Amarone’s little brother (there’s another one!): ‘baby Amarone’, ‘little Amarone’, ‘amarino’ (i.e. ‘little bitter’, an inversion of the more famous name) even ‘poor man’s Amarone’, referring to the notorious price differential. As a rule, winemakers don’t really like these; they imply that Ripasso is some sort of second rate version of something else, almost like a failure, whereas it is in fact a noble and extremely superior, elite, and indeed unique style of wine, of which the region of Valpolicella is immensely – and justly – proud.