Plush, dark, velvety and just a little OTT, there is something inherently luxurious about the Italian red wine amarone della valpolicella. In the last days of winter, the prospect of an evening spent savouring the combination of opulence and bittersweet flavours of dark chocolate, tobacco and black cherries could not be more alluring.
Not that you’d want to indulge every night. These are powerful wines: rarely less than 15% in alcohol and frequently clocking in at more than 16% or even 17% abv, and often with a little more sugar and sweetness than you find in other technically dry reds. A little amarone goes a long way.
The forceful style is due to unusual production methods. Amarone is made in the Valpolicella region around Verona in Veneto in north-east Italy, from corvina, crovinone and rondinella grapes that have been picked and then dried in special rooms for between two or three months after harvest in October. This raisining – or withering – appassimento process concentrates the sugars (meaning higher potential alcohol) and brings sometimes extraordinary complexity. Once the slow fermentation and ageing in wooden barrels has done its thing, you are left with the distinctive bitterness – amaro – that gives the style its name. Along with a slight sweetness and full but suave feel, this makes amarone an ideal match for dark chocolate and blue cheese or a chunk of parmesan.
Drying the grapes also leaves the winemaker with much less juice to play with: around a third to 40% less than the same grapes had they been crushed and fermented straight after harvest. That goes some way towards explaining why amarone is expensive (the style’s cult status in the US is another factor): prices for a good but not great supermarket bottle from the likes of Aldi and Morrisons start at £15 but, for the real deal – from favourite producers such as Bertani, Tommasi, Ca’ La Bionda – you must be prepared to pay upwards of £30.
Fortunately, amarone isn’t the only Italian dried-grape red wine in town. In the same region, the style known as ripasso della valpolicella, in which a conventional young red wine is refermented with the leftover skins of grapes used to make amarone, makes for a wonderful halfway house between the heady intensity of amarone and the cherry-red briskness of valpolicella classico. And, at the opposite end of the country, in Puglia and Sicily, winemakers have understood that local varieties, such as negroamaro and primitivo, can work brilliantly as passito wines using fully or partially dried grapes.
None of these alternatives has quite the lure of the best amarone but, given the much lower cost, they’ll help you dream a little and plot your next special occasion with Italy’s most luxurious red.
A great amarone and five affordable alternatives
Aldi Specially Selected Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore
Italy 2020 (£7.49, Aldi)
A method that was originally developed to add bulk and heft to the light, acidic red wines of Valpolicella is now very much a stylistic choice, with this example erring on the sweeter end of the spectrum, but balanced with enough cherry bakewell richness to work with meaty ragu.
Nero Oro Appassimento
Sicily, Italy 2020 (£9.99 or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
In northern Italy, grapes are dried indoors, generally in sophisticated temperature- and humidity-controlled drying rooms. For this southern alternative, the fruit was dried in the Sicilian sun. The warming result is rich, densely packed but juicy with prune, fig and fresh plums.
Allegrini Belpasso Rosso
Valpolicella, Italy 2019 (£10, Tesco)
One of the big names in Valpolicella, Allegrini makes a range of stylish, slick, fruit-forward amarone wines, but also does a nice line in more affordable bottlings, such as this smart valpolicella. With a 15% portion of dried grapes, it’s filled with vibrant brambly fruit shot through with dried herbs and pepper.
Cantine Paolo Leo Passitivo Appassimento Primitivo
Puglia, Italy 2021 (£11.95, jeroboams.co.uk)
The primitivo grape variety (now known to be the same variety as California’s zinfandel) takes well to the appassimento techniques, and this reliably good and good-value producer in Italy’s heel in Puglia makes one of the best examples: rich and fruitcakey but still somehow light on its feet.
Tedeschi Capitel San Rocco Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore
Italy 2019 (£16.50, thewinesociety.com)
Superb, luxurious but refined example of the half-way house ripasso style from Tedeschi, whose stylish amarones are also worth looking out for. This has wonderful lift from tangy red and black cherries, with layers of dark chocolate, a smooth, glossy, feel and a wonderfully fresh finish.
Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella
Italy 2017 (£45, Waitrose)
Wonderfully intense and all-embracing amarone from one of Valpolicella’s smartest addresses that shows off all the style’s decadent allure, with glossy, rich, black cherry dipped in dark chocolate, notes of lavender and rosemary, and a mass of fine tannins bringing a velvety feel.
