Secondo Marco 2013 Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico

Lovers of big, bold reds may already know the joys to be beneath the cork of an Amarone della Valpolicella - a blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes (though 13 others are allowed as well, these three form the ruling triumvirate!). For this wine, Marco chose a blend of 45%, 45% 5% and 5% of the "others".  He farms organically on vines trained atop overhead trellises, using the vine's leaves to protect the grapes from being sunburned by Italy's warming climate.  

Amarone wines have been described as "blackberry pie in a glass", an intensity of flavors made possible by a process called "appassimento". Appassimento translates to “fading” or “withering" in Italian, but in winemaking this refers to grapes that are dried until their weight has been reduced by 30% or more before fermentation begins. This process results in full-bodied wines that offer pleasant gobs of intense fruit, balanced acidity and sometimes a hint of sweetness. Today, the appassimento process takes place in large warehouses where the freshly harvested gapes rest for weeks in loosely stacked bins from floor to cieling until they've been declared "ready". But in the old days, the drying took place on cane matts or hung on racks and simply left for months until the winemaker decided they were ready.

In other parts of the winemaking world, this drying process is used to make sweet wines (think of the sweet whites from Austria, or Vin Santo from Tuscany), but in the Veneto, Amarone is the reason for the drying season! And here the wines are usually relatively low in sugar. Though the wines are high in alcohol (16%, here) they also tend to have some residual sugar as well, but  these are not dessert wines - they are at their best as a dinner companion. Heavenly pairings include rabbit ragu over pasta, wild boar (or pork butt, if you are fresh out of cinghiale!), or slow-braised winter meats with mirepoix.