Tasted at a wine bar in Charlotte, North Carolina. $33 off the menu. Great wine and worth twice the price. Deep garnet in color. The nose has cherries, slight dried cherry, and spices. Great texture. Great acidity. Delicious. It will be better with food. A rich pasta dish would be great. Drink over the next five to eight years.
Bussola is one of the greatest Amarone producers, but this is just a simple Valpolicella that is relatively inexpensive. That said, this was excellent and a great value. Purple in color with ruby at the rim. Mostly opaque and bright. The nose is great with black and red currants, slight raisins, dust and spices. Medium to full bodied. On the palate, black currant fruit with underlying spice and some raisins. Light tannins. Dry. Great acidity. Long finish. This is delicious. It worked well with a pasta and tomato sauce. This should drink well over the next five to seven years.
Another "lesser" wine from Bussola. And yes, while his Amarone's are amazing, they are also pricey. This Valpolicella is much more affordable and even in a poor vintage like 2014, he made great wine. This is a blend of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara and other grapes. Fifty percent of the grapes for this wine are harvested in September and are dried for 3 months.
Bussola is one of the top three producers of Amarone. What separates him from the other two is pricing. Bussola's wines are affordable. This is his base wine and it retails for around $50. That is not inexpensive, but it is worth it. One caveat, to really get the full bang for your buck, let them age for a while. This one is still not yet at peak but showing quite well especially with a bit of air. Purple in color with some ruby swirls. On the nose this has cherries, black cherries, tobacco, dried currants, slight sandalwood and prune. Very deep. On the palate, this is dry but fee
Bussola is one of the top producers in Amarone and the top producer I can still afford (after Quintarelli and Dal Forno). This was an older bottle that was just singing. It had been stood up for a week and then decanted just prior to serving. It continued to open up for the next couple of hours. Really a gorgeous wine. Purple in color with ruby swirls. The nose is great. Dusty at first, that gave way to slight craisins, cherries with some underlying smoke and even a bit of dried flowers. With more air, a chocolate/caramel note comes out; almost sweet. On the palate, this is still l
From Magnum. Pop and pour, it took about 45 minutes to open. Deep garnet in color, mostly opaque and bright. The nose has cherries, slight prunes, slight dark chocolate, raspberries and spice. Full bodied. Dry. On the palate, cherries, raspberries, chocolate with an underlying earthiness. Nice acidity. Great mouthfeel. This is still on the young side, but should be about at peak from a 750ML. Drink over the next ten to twelve years. This drinks well on its own but worked great with a variety of Italian foods.
