Amarone & Valpolicella wines from 2017

2017 was hot, as is becoming more and more the case as climate change alters the shape of things everywhere. On its own however, warm and dry weather sounds like good news, but that’s not the whole story – all grapes, autochthonous ones most particularly, require a delicate balance of conditions to produce reliable wine, and excessive heat can be a problem for varieties that aren’t used to it. Add in some vine frost from unseasonable hailstorms in late spring, and you can see why the winemakers were made to put the work in that year. Nevertheless early results are good, and hopes from many of the leading winemakers are very high.