Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone: Veneto's Big Red Wine

In the winter, there is a wine from Italy that really seems to fit the mood of the day. A wine that is contemplative and warming. It comes from the Northeastern corner of Italy, in the Veneto. I am talking about Amarone. The region of the Veneto was discussed in earlier articles on Soave and Prosecco. Amarone is one of the most famous big red wines that are produced in Italy, but surprisingly enough, does not have a long and storied history.

To understand Amarone, one must first start with the wine of Valpolicella. Valpolicella is the name of a valley in the Veneto. The name literally means “valley of many cellars.” Wine has been made here since at least the time of the Romans. The red wine is based mostly on the Corvina and Rondinella grapes and like the valley is also called Valpolicella. It is a nice easy to drink red wine that was popular with the locals. Simultaneously, or perhaps even earlier, a sweet version of this wine was being produced called Recioto della Valpolicella. It comes from the same area, is the same blend of grapes and dates back to Roman times.

The Romans developed a process known as appassimento, for making a sweet wine. This means the grapes were cut from the vines and left to dry out in the sun on straw mats concentrating the sugars in the grapes as the water evaporated. The shriveled grapes were then fermented. The yeasts would die off before the sugar had been completely fermented, leaving a sweet wine. The name Recioto is thought to come from a local dialect for the Italian word for ear which is orrechie. In the local dialect the word is recie. This was because the grapes used for the wine were supposedly only the top corners of the bunches or the “ears” of the clusters. These are the part of the bunch that gets the most sun and are the ripest and most mature.

At some point in history, a long forgotten producer somehow overlooked, perhaps intentionally, a barrel of their Recioto and it continued fermenting. For some unknown reason the yeasts did not die and the wine had fermented completely dry. Like many happy accidents, the wine was worthy of drinking. The style became known as Recioto Amaro. Amaro meaning bitter because of the tart, raisiny flavors the wine had when dried. Eventually the full name of Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone or Amarone della Valpolicella became more proper. Usually today, it is simply referred to as Amarone. It is a very fascinating wine.