Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Riserva “Leone Zardini” 2019
Decanter 95Gambero Rosso 3 Bicchieri
Wine Description
Leone Zardini is the riserva that carries the family name, Pietro Zardini's selection for long aging in the classical style. The blend is Corvina 70%, Rondinella 20%, Molinara 5% and Croatina 5%; the grapes dry on racks for four to five months, longer than the house norm, and the wine then spends four years in oak barrels and tonneaux with further rest in steel and bottle before release.
At 16.5% it is a warm, structured Amarone: ripe dark fruit, coffee, cocoa and sweet spice over dense but polished tannin, with the producer suggesting a drinking arc of ten to fifteen years. The 2019 is early in that arc and rewards a couple of hours open before serving.
Pour it at 16 to 18 °C beside braised game, pastissada de caval or an aged Monte Veronese; it is a wine for the end of the evening, not the start.
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.
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