Recioto della Valpolicella: long life to the King!

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Recioto della Valpolicella: long life to the King!

There is a new book dedicated to the Recioto della Valpolicella. Recioto was well before Amarone. As many wine lovers know, Amarone della Valpolicella originally was a Recioto (the traditional sweet wine from dried red grapes), totally fermented. 

Recioto is the father of Amarone della Valpolicella. Its origin. A wine that deserves much more attention and success than actually has, but we cannot complain the consumers about this, because the most of them never tasted a Recioto della Valpolicella - a good one, I mean. It is tricky to make a real good Recioto, and it's quite rare to find one, but we are pretty sure that it's all a matter of market. Nowadays the wine producers in Valpolicella are not so willing to produce Recioto, because it's difficult  to make, people don't ask for it and it's expensive to communicate, to market and to sell...

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Valpolicella: the big deal and the new wave

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Valpolicella: the big deal and the new wave
"Although many people all around the world love Amarone, often they really have no idea where it comes from. And - sadly - Valpolicella’s producers don’t seem to do much to inform them. It needs an effective strategy of “geographic” communication of this part of Verona province before speaking about grapes or technique"...
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Harvest 2014 in Valpolicella: how did it go?

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Harvest 2014 in Valpolicella: how did it go?

It has been a difficult and stressful harvest, a real challenge for the most producers, and if you ask anyone in Valpolicella, you’ll be replied that nobody remembers a vintage like this.

Now the harvest is over, so let’s try to summarize a few objective facts.

The 2014 vintage started very early: the early stages of germination were 15 days in advance of the media. Up to June everything was fine, but afterwards the temperatures dropped; July and August were cold and rainy.

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Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore Masterclass: we did it

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Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore Masterclass: we did it

We did it.

Our first international tasting, the "Rare and Unusual Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore Masterclass" was truly successful. The eight wineries which decided to share with us the uncommon adventure of a "different way" to approach Valpolicella through its valleys, grapes, wines and styles, met in Montreux a selected and really interested (and interesting) group of people...

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Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore Masterclass: some feedbacks

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Here you can find some comments to the wines we introduced in our Masterclass in Montreux. Amarone is an impressive wine for everybody's approaching it for the first time, of course, and Valpolicella Superiore is an elegant and fine wine that worths be rediscovered.

Thanks to Shirley Chen, Per Karlsson, Magnus Reuterdahl, Valeska Idarraga and Fernando Paredes for their kind collaboration.

Montreux Rare and Unusual Masterclass

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Some images of the Amarone & Valpolicella Masterclass - to browse this gallery click on the image and go to Ricardo Bernardo's link

Some images of the Amarone & Valpolicella Masterclass - to browse this gallery click on the image and go to Ricardo Bernardo's link

Back from the DWCC - Digital Wine Communications Conference, we got a good success with the "Rare and Unusual Masterclass" dedicated to our "different approach" to Valpolicella wine region and its wines. In Montreux we presented 16 different wines produced by 8 wineries based all over the wine region.

By now, enjoy the pictures above, courtesy of our good friend Ricardo Bernardo.

Flash: Roccolo Grassi adds his "no" to Amarone in 2014

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Marco Sartori, owner at Roccolo Grassi

Marco Sartori, owner at Roccolo Grassi

The unfortunate 2014 vintage collects another winegrower of Amarone and Valpolicella wines, Roccolo Grassi, that announces giving up to produce Amarone della Valpolicella 2014. Marco Sartori, the owner, revealed he anticipated the news privately to a friend early at the end of August, and yesterday, Saturday 13th, he made it publicly on Facebook (link in Italian). Roccolo Grassi adds himself to the growing list of Amarone producers that did the same choice like Romano Dal Forno, Bertani and others smaller producers like Terre di Pietra and Tenute Ugolini.

On the same topic, please see our pre-harvest report and this post about the difficult decisions facing Valpolicella producers.

Flash: Romano Dal Forno sad decision, no Amarone in 2014

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Romano Dal Forno

Romano Dal Forno

Romano Dal Forno, the iconic winegrower of Amarone and Valpolicella wines, sadly joins Bertani and others smaller producers like Terre di Pietra and Tenute Ugolini. In an announcement released here (in Italian) he gives up to produce Amarone della Valpolicella 2014:

"This unfortunate vintage poses a lot of big question marks. We must think to the final consumer: the real wine lover cannot expect a high quality Amarone, and resellers and restaurant owners might see in this vintage more problems than opportunities in which to invest. On our side, we'll try to do our best with the Valpolicella wine".

On the same topic, please see our pre-harvest report and this post about the difficult decisions facing Valpolicella producers.