- Area: Italy, Della Valpolicella
- Grape: 80% Corvina Veronese, 15% Rondinella, 5% Oseleta
- Alcohol: 15.4%
- Rating: Black; 98 Dilettante; 98 Nwjr; 97 The Z; 97
Description: This super-rich, opulent beauty is not for the feint of heart. Intense, ravishing and totally uncompromising, it oozes old-world nobility and breeding. The color is so dark it's almost black. On the nose, bold aromas of ripe wild berries, candied fruit, chocolate, cinnamon and a hint of Lipizzaner waft out of the glass. The mouth feel is extraordinarily rich, meaty and beautifully balanced. Dry and full-bodied, it clings to the glass like a demi-glace clings to a spoon. This amarone offers up incredibly complex flavors of sun dried dark fruits, blackberries, cocoa, raisin, fig, old fashioned hard licorice, and roasted coffee beans. The bone dry finish lasts minutes with nuances of caramel, licorice, dark wood, and cherry pit. This wine is so powerful, it makes a pinotage seem boring.
Price: $68
Note: Straight out of the bottle the high alcohol content shows. Decant for an hour and the nuances will sing like the Tabernacle Choir.
Warning: You've gotta be in the mood for this one or it will be too much to take.
Food Pairing: Roast goose, ostrich, venison, authentic Italian cookies and believe it or not, it was great with crème brûlée
Musical Pairing: We worked to find the music that fit this wine’s personality. Mussorgsky was not right, Mozart’s Requiem was melodious enough but missing something. O Fortuna (Orf) was heavy enough but still didn't hit the mark. Phantom of the Opera, in all it's dramatic moods, fits this wine perfectly.
Description: Aromas of prune, cherry and leather waft out of the glass. The mouth-feel is dense and chewy. Sophisticated and harmonious flavors of dark fruit, raisin, leather, spice and black cherries are wrapped around a core of soft tannins. The finish is long, spicy and evolving. Full-bodied and rich, this Amarone has a lot of Old World earthiness.
