Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico 2020
James Suckling 93
Wine Description
Bussola's Amarone della Valpolicella Classico brings the house style to its most approachable form without giving up the depth that made the TB selections famous. As is traditional for the appellation, the blend rests on Corvina and Corvinone with Rondinella in support, and the grapes spend the winter drying on racks, losing a good share of their weight before a slow fermentation and a long rest in oak.
The 2020 is young and complete: black cherry and plum held in reserve, cocoa, sweet spice, a firm but ripe tannic frame and the natural warmth of the appassimento method. It is a wine for the table rather than the aperitif hour: braised beef, pastissada de caval, roast duck or aged Monte Veronese all sit well beside it, and in Venice it closes a dinner of bigoli and roasted meats with ease.
Decant for an hour and serve at 16 to 18 °C; there is no hurry, as it will hold and improve for a decade or longer.
Winery
Tommaso Bussola trained as a stonemason before taking over his uncle Giuseppe's vines above Negrar in the mid 1980s, and he turned a small grape selling farm into one of the most respected estates of the Valpolicella Classica. Giuseppe Quintarelli himself tipped him as the zone's coming talent. The vineyards hold old, naturally low yielding clones of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella with touches of Molinara and Dindarella, farmed with unusual care for pruning and soil. Today his sons Giuseppe and Paolo work alongside him, and the wines, the TB selections and Amarone above all, keep their depth, patience and clean Veronese character.
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