Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG “La Corte del Pozzo” 2018
James Suckling 93
Wine Description
La Corte del Pozzo is Fasoli Gino's classical Amarone, from organically farmed Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella trained on the traditional short Veronese pergola over clay and limestone slopes. The grapes dry naturally in small wooden crates for five to six months, ferment in steel for 25 to 35 days, then mature at least three years in oak barrels, arriving at a substantial 17.5%.
Expect prunes, blackberries and cherry syrup laced with cinnamon and clove, a full, smooth body and firm but polished tannin with a long finish. The 2018 drinks well now and will reward keeping.
Decant for an hour and serve at 16 to 18 °C beside dishes with equal patience in them: braised beef in Amarone, pastissada de caval, roast game, or aged Monte Veronese at the end of a Venetian dinner. Its size asks for the table's slowest course, not its first.
Winery
Fasoli Gino began in 1925, when Amadio Fasoli planted his family farm at Colognola ai Colli in the lower Illasi valley, and it has stayed in the family ever since, with grandson Matteo now running the estate's 20 hectares. The house was among the area's organic pioneers and today works organically and biodynamically, with certified vegan wines, clay and limestone hillsides and the traditional short Veronese pergola in the vines. The wines carry the eastern valleys' signature: generous fruit, dried and aged with patience, always with a fresh, savory line underneath.
