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!
Quotes on wine
“Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk of them and Champagne makes you do them.“
— Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
If you enjoyed this post, make my day and buy me a glass of wine.
Paris Hilton: one night in Bordeaux/prison
Paris is put into prison. 48 hours later Paris has left the building…eeumh…the prison again. I guess Michael “Prison Break” Scofield would be rather jealous. And now the Los Angeles judge wants her back in prison.
It’s great to be a millionaire’s daughter, isn’t.
But hey, this blog is about wine. So what’s got this celebrity to do with wine? First of all, she has done a launching campaign for Rich, a canned prosecco. And this prosecco is a grape as well as that great Italian sparkling wine from the Veneto region.
And now, well now, she is going to be the face of the publicity campaign for Bordeaux. At least that is the (incredible) news posted by Decanter at their website. This new Bordeaux campaign will soon be launched at Vinexpo (June 17-21). The ad will blow you away with the funky words: “Paris: one night in Bordeaux“.
But the plans are even more phenomenal. At the first day, the sex kitten will arrive in a hot air balloon. For me, that pops up the question: will mega-tycoon Richard Branson also be at the opening party?
But there are -at least- three catches:
- The Decanter article was written on April 1, 2007. April fools day!?
- Will she be out or in prison?
- And if she will be out of prison, will her ankle wrist allow her to go all the way to Bordeaux?
Have a nice wine today!
If you enjoyed this post, make my day and buy me a glass of wine.Pulp fiction
Just finished watching one of the masterworks of Quentin Tarantino, yes, indeed “Pulp Fiction”.
You might ask what the heck has this to do with wine. But if you have listened close you maybe remarked the following words from the scene where Marcellus Wallace addresses Butch.
If you enjoyed this post, make my day and buy me a glass of wine.“You see, this business is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherfuckers. Motherfuckers who thought their ass would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better with age, it don’t.“
One thing I learned in Champagne today
I went for a quick trip to Champagne today. Funtastic weather, temperatures at about 25 degrees Celsius. During the smooth car trip the sun was playing hide and seek with some clouds and shadows were chasing on the highway. Ideal conditions to mentally prepare for these delicious bubbles.
First stop: Vincent Renoir, a small producer in Verzy. This village is located in the Montagne de Reims region. This means that the great red grape pinot noir is omnipresent. Their champagnes are indeed well loaded with this grape. Take their basic brut tradition (tirage 2003) and you will find half of it filled with pinot noir grapes. The other half is occupied by that other great
What is the anecdote beefing up this word? Just before Christmas the order books of
However, one problem during this period is the cold. It could happen that upon transport to the eager clients, the bottles remained some time in the cold. This cold had the effect that certain elements in the wine crystallize. They actually form some kind of “snow flakes”. Hence the reference to those typical snow flakes we all have in mind when dreaming about a white Christmas.
Nowadays this “problem” with
And now it is time to pop some
Santé!
Have a nice glass of Champagne today!
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