Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG 2016
Vinous 97Wine Spectator 97Decanter 90
Wine Description
Amarone from Roccolo Grassi shows what the eastern valleys can do: Mezzane fruit, organic farming and a deliberately shorter appassimento than most houses use, so the wine keeps a fresh spine under its concentration. Corvina leads the blend with the valley's traditional companions; fermentation runs on yeasts selected from the estate's own vineyards, and the wine rests in wood before release.
Expect dark cherry and plum, balsamic herbs and cocoa with firm, fresh tannins, an Amarone that stays a dinner wine instead of turning into dessert. Mezzane is quieter and less visited than the Classica, and bottles like this one are the reason the valley's name keeps appearing on serious lists. The 2016 is drinking now and will improve for years; give it an hour of air. Serve at 18 °C with braised beef cheek, roast game or aged Monte Veronese; in Venice we pour it beside slow cooked guancia with polenta.
Winery
Roccolo Grassi is a small family estate in Mezzane di Sotto, in the eastern valleys of the Valpolicella, started in 1996 when Marco Sartori began bottling the family's grapes under the name of their best vineyard. Fourteen hectares across Mezzane and San Briccio are farmed with organic and biodynamic methods, fermentations run on yeasts selected from the estate's own vineyards, and production stays near fifty thousand bottles. The style pairs concentration with freshness, using shorter drying for Amarone, and the range keeps whites serious too, with a Soave and Recioto di Soave beside the Valpolicella Superiore, Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella.
