A of Amarone: a V12 engine wine
Introduction
Where better could you start a WinePhabet than with the letter A? That was an easy one, but then the difficult part comes. Which letter A-subject to start with, since the choice is enormous…?
That got me thinking. Well, I like to pull of in pole position, so obviously a lot of (horse)power is a good thing to get that first starting grid. So, I started wandering a bit through the narrow streets of my mind. Here I ended up at a crossing and saw miraculously this sign showing me the way to “Power Wines”. That was the street to take, heavy bold wines with loads of (horse)power. I got eager and started running down this street. Out of breath, I ended up at a this great square named Amarone…Taking into account the speed of Italian sport cars, this just is the wine to start with, this just is the fuel necessary to get me into that pole position, wouldn’t you agree?
A of Amarone
And indeed, Amarone, or in full Amarone della Valpolicella, is a V12 engine wine. Just take a look at the label and you will notice stunning alcohol degrees of 15% and more (14% being the legal minimum). Just put your nose in a glass of Amarone and you will get an abundance of smells.
The desert treatment
Where does Amarone get this power from? A special production process called “appassimento” does the trick. The harvested grapes will undergo what I call the “desert treatment“.
The “desert treatment” you might ask? Ever been into a desert without water? Indeed, you get dehydrated. The same happens with these grapes. They are put on straw mats or in small casks in a heated room or warm attic and they dry out, shrivel into something raisiny.
This mummification process might take several months and has two major impacts. First, the water is naturally extracted out of the grape and thus the sugars are more concentrated. And as you might know sugar ferments into alcohol. Secondly, also the flavors are more concentrated, just think of dried fruit flavors like plums, raisins and figs. And so a V12 engine is created.
Grapes
The main grapes used in Amarone, and for that matter also the simpler Valpolicella, are corvina (the leader of the pack), rondinella and molinara. Next to this threesome, also other grapes are allowed, but only in seasoning quantities. So you could sometimes encounter in your Amarone blend a tiny quantity of grapes such as sangiovese and barbera. If you would like to discover these wines in Italy, you need to head to the Veneto region, the north of Italy.
A dictionary approach
If we take a closer look at the word Amarone and grab our Italian dictionary, the word amaro meaning bitter can be discovered. And when an Italian adds “-one” to a word, it just gets bigger. So the translation would be something like “heavy bitter”. But do not worry, in your mouth you will only get a slight tartness in the final counterbalanced by dried fruit and often a little sweet edge. I guess that by now you understand that this type of wine could easily turn into an irresistible temptation.
Come on and try it
So if you would like to try out one, here are some renown (and less renown) producers worth trying but better see that your wallet is filled to the brim because these are not cheap wines (on average around 30-35 EUR and for the first two you pay a lot, and I mean a lot more): dal Forno, Quintarelli, Allegrini, Masi, Corte Sant’Alda, Tedeschi, Ca Bionda and many others.
Have a nice wine Amarone today!
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is the a from asti next in line?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I was thinking about the B of Barolo to be next in line. And, indeed a Moscati d’Asti is a lovely refreshing sweet bubbly wine. Have you ever tried it with some strawberries. Yammie!
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