Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico Riserva 2011
Wine Enthusiast 96Vinous 94+
Wine Description
The Amarone Riserva De Buris is the Tommasi family's answer to the question of how far Amarone can go when nobody is in a hurry. The blend is Corvina 65%, Corvinone 24%, Oseleta 6% and Rondinella 5% from the La Groletta vineyard in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, picked by hand and dried on bamboo racks for around 110 days. Fermentation is followed by five years in Slavonian oak casks of 15 to 30 hectolitres and a long rest in the cellar of Villa De Buris before release. At 16% it is opulent but precise: fruits of the forest, pepper and winter spice, cacao and a buttery depth, with sweet fruit set against a mineral line and a very long finish. The 2011 took Wine Advocate 94 points and a Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso; it is in a fine window now with years ahead of it. Decant about an hour and serve at 16 to 18 °C with braised beef in Amarone, roast game or aged Monte Veronese, and in Venice, castradina.
Winery
De Buris is the riserva project of the Tommasi family, developed under the family's oenologist Giancarlo Tommasi and centred on Villa De Buris, a historic property of the Valpolicella Classica whose ancient cellar shelters the bottles as they age. The wine comes from La Groletta in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, a ten hectare hillside at 250 metres facing southwest toward Lake Garda, with a 1.9 hectare parcel set aside for the riserva on clay and limestone soils. Only one wine is made, an Amarone Classico Riserva, only in years that deserve it, and it is released solely after long aging in cask and bottle.
