Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico “Valle Alta” 2015
Wine Description
Valle Alta is the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico of Tenute Ugolini, the top of a small family range grown in the Fumane valley. As is traditional for the appellation, Corvina leads the blend and the grapes dry for months after harvest before a slow fermentation and cask aging, the process that turns Valpolicella fruit into Amarone's dried cherry depth.
Expect morello cherry and plum moving toward fig and cocoa, sweet spice and firm, ripe tannins with the warmth the category carries. Fumane's height and cool air tend to keep its Amarones fresher than their weight suggests, and this one follows that pattern. The 2015 is in its drinking window now and will hold; give it an hour of air. Serve at 18 °C with braised beef cheek, roast game or aged Monte Veronese; in Venice it stands up well to fegato alla veneziana.
Winery
Tenute Ugolini is a family estate in the Fumane valley, one of the historic townships of the Valpolicella Classica between Verona and Lake Garda. The family has held land here since the grandparents' generation and today farms 22 hectares of vineyard around Villa San Michele, the old colonial house on the San Michele hill, where rows of vines share the slopes with cherry and other native trees. The range stays close to home: Valpolicella Classico Superiore from the San Michele hill, a ripasso called Monte Solane and the Amarone Classico Valle Alta at the top.
