Valpolicella: Differentiating this Veneto Red from Amarone

In the last article, I discussed Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone. While most of the feedback that I received (and I love to get some feedback) was positive, apparently, there is still some confusion on differentiating Amarone from Valpolicella. Based on the name, such confusion is understandable. Although Amarone may be the superior wine, “simple” Valpolicella, however, is a wine worthy of its own discussion and understanding.

Valpolicella, named after the local valley in the Veneto that the wine is from, has been made since at least Roman times. Pliny the Elder wrote about it in his travels. It has a long history of being the local wine of choice. It never was meant to be more than a simple food wine and over time, quality got more and more suspect. Yields of the vineyards were quite large and the wine was produced in large quantities. The reputation of this wine became poor and it was rarely consumed outside of the local area. Even today, there are large industrial producers making oceans of the stuff that is not worth the time or trouble for wine enthusiasts to drink. There are, however, some very good Valpolicellas.

As I stated in the last column, Valpolicella and Amarone utilize the same grapes. That is Corvina Veronese, 40-70%; Rondinella, 20-40%; Molinara, 5-25%; Barbera, up to 15%; Negrara Trentina and/or Rossignola and/or Sangiovese, 15%; other local red varieties, up to 5%. The wines can be labeled as Classico, Superiore or Classico Superiore, the last two requiring 14 months of ageing before release.