Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG “Pietro Junior” 2021
Wine Description
Pietro Junior is the Amarone that opens Pietro Zardini's range, named like the estate itself for the family line, and made in the classical Veronese mold. The blend rests on Corvina with Rondinella and Molinara, and the grapes spend several months of the winter drying on wooden racks before a slow fermentation, concentrating sugar, color and perfume as the appassimento method intends.
The glass leads with cherry and blueberry preserve, cocoa, vanilla and a coffee shade from the wood, full bodied and velvety with the gentle bitterness that keeps a good Amarone savory rather than sweet. The 2021 is young and open, already generous but with years of growth ahead of it.
Give it an hour in the decanter and serve at 16 to 18 °C. At the table it likes slow cooked dishes: braised beef, pastissada de caval, roast duck, or simply aged cheese and quiet company after the plates are cleared.
Winery
Pietro Zardini founded his cellar in San Pietro in Cariano in 2000, but the roots go deeper: he grew up at Corte Zardini in San Floriano, studied agricultural science, qualified as a sommelier and worked with several large Verona houses through the 1990s before setting out under the name of his grandfather. The vineyards lie at Monte Mattonara in San Floriano and Valfiorita in Negrar, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classica, and the cellar holds sixteen amphorae of raw clay alongside oak of every size, a combination that gives the wines their warm, spiced and quietly old fashioned character.
