Amarone della Valpolicella Classico “Sant’Urbano” DOCG

Amarone is the king of Veronese wines, not to mention Italian wines. It combines power and softness, evolving to Port-like lusciousness over three decades or more, showing grandeur and depth. It starts off like Valpolicella, but select bunches of the perfect grapes are lengthily dried on traditional arele racks in special fruit drying lofts after harvest, to achieve greater concentration.

Speri Amarone is made from Corvina, Rondinella, and Corvinone, grown in the estate’s most prestigious cru, a single hillside vineyard called Sant’Urbano. This vineyard features calcareous-cretaceous soil of volcanic origin that retains humidity, protecting it from drought. The whole vineyard extends 19 hectares.

The grapes are hand-picked and then re-sorted to find only the best bunches in late September. They then dry for about 100-120 days under ideal conditions in terms of temperature, humidity and ventilation. They lose about 41% of their initial weight, enhancing concentration and sugar levels. In mid-January, the grapes are soft-pressed and de-stemmed. This is followed by about thirty-six days of maceration on the skins with periodic pumping over and délestage. The wine completes fermentation in large oak barrels and then ages twenty-four months in oak, eighteen months in Slavonian oak barrels and twelve months in bottle.

Very deep and intense bouquet with spicy, aromatic and jammy notes combining power and finesse; a prelude to a palate that is rich, sensuous, highly structured and complex, lingering on and on. Especially cellar-worthy.