Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG “Pietro Dal Cero” 2015
Wine Description
Pietro dal Cero is the Amarone that Ca' dei Frati, the great Lugana house, makes in memory of the man who built the modern estate. The fruit grows in the Luxinum vineyard at Pian di Castagnè, in the hills east of Verona, on clay, shingle and limestone, and in recent releases Corvina leads the blend with Corvinone, Rondinella and Croatina.
The style favours freshness alongside power: sour cherry, cocoa, chewing tobacco and peppery spice over lively acidity and a slightly bitter, savoury edge that keeps the wine long and composed. A decade from harvest, the 2015 is entering its best years, generous and dark fruited with the tertiary layer just beginning to speak. Decant it for an hour and serve at 16 to 18 °C with slow cooked meat stews, ragù based dishes, game or pecorino; in Venice, fegato alla veneziana with polenta is the natural call. A confident vintage of a wine built for the long haul, equally at home tonight or in the cellar for years to come.
Winery
Ca' dei Frati is the Dal Cero family estate at Lugana di Sirmione, on the southern shore of Lake Garda, where Felice Dal Cero settled in 1939. The house made its name with Lugana and helped establish the local DOC in 1969, building one of the appellation's reference cellars. Today Pietro's children Igino, Gian Franco and Anna Maria carry the estate forward, and its red ambition is concentrated in a single Amarone that bears their father's name, made from family vineyards in the hills east of Verona where the Dal Cero story began.
