An Amarone Pairing with a Visit to Brunelli

The Valpolicella wine region is one I have probably explored the most in depth as it was my first press trip as a wine blogger.  I’ve even been a number of times including my own personal travel there so I have a pretty good understanding of the land, the grapes and the styles of wine grown there.  Our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group this month is exploring passito wines.  It gave me the perfect excuse to open a bottle that I brought back from Italy when I traveled through this wine region in 2009, prior to being a blogger at that time.   

Passito Wines 

What are passito wines?  They’re wines that undergo a unique process of drying the grapes, known as the appassimento process, before they go through fermentation. The grapes are either laid out of mats to dry or as I saw from my journey there they were laid in crates with fans blowing on them.   As you can imagine this concentrates the sugars in the grapes developing a more richer, complex style with depth.  Think about your average grape and then think about raisins.  Very different flavor there as the water evaporates from the end product.   

These weren't from Brunelli, but during my travel in the region.

Amarone stems from the word amaro meaning bitter as this wine can be compared to its sweeter counterpart, recioto della valpolicella.   Amarone is the dry version of a recioto.  Back in the day producers let natural fermentation take place until some discovered by accident that the sugar of the dried grapes had all been metabolized.  It was initially labelled as Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone until the 1990’s when it stood on its own as you see it today, Amarone della Valpolicella.    

The Land ~ Valpolicella 

The Amarone DOCG wines are an appellation within the Valpolicella wine region of the Veneto.  Just north of Verona this wine region borders the Monti Lessini Range along the Adige River on the western side.  The name Valpolicella stems from a Latin word meaning “valley of many cellars”  and wineries here are a plenty.  I remember from my travels that the valleys fan out throughout the region looking almost like fingers.  It reminded me a little of the Finger Lakes wine region of upstate NY I travel to annually.   

The Grapes 

Amarone wines are produced from a variety of grapes at differing percentages including corvina, corvinone, rondinella and molinara.  The Brunelli Amarone I’m sharing today is  made of 65% corvina, 25% rondinella and 10% corvinone.     Corvina is the primary red grape produced in the Valpolicella wine region.  Rondinella is another popular varietal of the region typically blended in many of the red wines found in Valpolicella as well as the wine area of Bardolino.  It’s considered a relative of the former corvina mentioned.  Corvinone is used in smaller percentages, but adds some beefiness and body to the blends in which it is used. 

The Winery ~ Brunelli 

The Brunelli winery is located in San Pietro in Carino, within the Amarone Classico wine zone.  This is the most western part of the Valpolicella wine producing area and like most classico wine zones is considered the heart of the wine region.  Considered the best wines of the area, although I hate to generalize as we know there are always diamonds in the rough. 

The history of the Brunelli winery starts back in the 18th century when three brothers were sharecroppers that worked the land of a noble family out of Verona.  They produced a variety of crops and took care of the farm animals.  At one point they decided to produce recioto and valpolicella wines giving half to the owner of the land.  Word got out of the quality of the wines they were producing by locals and a visiting bishop.  At the beginning of the 20th century they had an opportunity to become full owners.

My visit back in 2009

The great grandfather of today’s current manager, Alberto Brunelli, started the winery in 1936.  After World War II past he passed the winery down to his son, Giuseppe, whom started to bottle the wines.  This was at a time when most growers of the area were selling their wines in bulk.  Alberto’s father, Luigi, took over the winery in 1976 purchasing 2 parcels of land in the Classico area.  These parcels were called Campo Inferi and Campo del Titari.   

I love that these parcels of land have such meaning as Luigi had a childhood horse whom he named the vineyard of Campo del Titari after.  It produced wines that reminded of grace and power.  The tobacco and leather notes reminded him of the horse’s saddle while the deeper color reminded him of the black horse.  The wines produced there are considered to have a “determined and enigmatic character” like himself.  The other parcel, Campo Inferi, has more gentler, feminine style traits like his wife.     

          

The Wine 

The 2006 Brunelli Amarone della Valpolicella Classico that I opened was quite the treat.  Amarone wines are ones that definitely need some oxygen to open up.  I personally like to taste it through its many stages upon opening, some hours later and even the next day if some is left over.   

This Amarone was a deeper ruby in color, paler on the edges.  With a nose of dark cherries and rich raspberry notes.  Upon tasting at the back of my mouth it left a beautiful silkiness or glycerol taste you’ll find in some of the wines of this area.  A well balanced wine with softer tannings, good acidity an nice concentrated fruit.  More feminine in style with elegance.   

It was drinking well for being 13 years old and I’m glad I opened it at this point.  Amarone wines are ones that can age for decades if you have the time and patience.  At an SRP at $45 it’s not a wine you can splurge on every day, but its one I always typically enjoy with my Thanksgiving meal and the occasional splurge.  ABV 15%  

Pairing: Since the cool weather is upon us I chose to pair this Amarone with a pot roast drizzled with an amarone based gravy.

Join us live this Saturday September 7th on Twitter at 11am EST to learn all about passito wines from the rest of our winelovers.

Jeff at Food Wine Click will share “Dip Your Biscotti in Montefalco Sagrantino Passito“
Linda at My Full Wine Glass will share “Passito and peaches –perfect late-summer fare (#ItalianFWT)”
Camilla Mann at Culinary Adventures with Cam will share “Polpette al Forno + Sartarelli Verdicchio Passito 2013”
Wendy Klik at A Day in the Life on the Farm will share “Appassimento Method explained in Layman Terms”
Kevin Gagnon at Snarky Wine will share “Great Sweet Wines of the World Part 2: Passito”
Cindy at Grape Experiences will share “Italian Night? Pair Appassimento from Abruzzo with Homemade Wild Mushroom Ravioli“
Nicole at Somm’s Table will share “The Sweet Side of ILatium Morini: Sette Dame Recioto di Soave Classico with an Old-Fashioned Strawberry Cake“
Gwendolyn at Wine Predator will share “Pasqua Puts a Little Love in Your Life Part 2: White and Red Appassimento“
Katarina at Grapevine Adventures will share “3 Different Italian Appassimento Wines That You Will Love”


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It's All About Being Different with Tenuta Sant'Antonio

Time to visit a wine region I have had much personal experience with thanks to the Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella.  I have taken a couple trips over to the Valpolicella wine region over the last few years tasting through the wonderful wines including Valpolicella, Soave and the prized Amarone wines that hail from this region.  Plus, as an added bonus this is a beautiful region to visit starting with the city of love, Verona.  It’s the perfect place to base yourself and take many wonderful day trips easily accessible by Italy’s most convenient train system or rent a car and be independent to go wherever you want.   

The Land 

Set in northeastern Italy, the wine area of Valpolicella is located just north of Verona nearby to Lake Garda and the Lessini Mountains.  The land is laid out via a series of valleys enriched with rolling hills.  The area of Valpantena as seen on the map is one of the areas with the highest quality.   

 

Copyright of the Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella

The Winery 

Tenuta Sant’Antonio is owned by the Familia Castegnedi family that is operated by 4 brothers: Armando, Tiziano, Massimo and Paolo.  Their father started the dream of owning a vineyard, which is located in San Zeno di Colognola ai Colli within the hills of Illasi and the Mezzane valleys.  In 1989 the brothers bought land and property in Monti Garbi since they didn’t want to continue to sell off the fruits of their labor to cooperatives as they were with their father’s vineyard.  Their aim is to be different and not traditional and I sensed that as well from my tasting.  Here are some examples:  

• The Telos project is where they are experimenting with producing wine without sulfites
• The use plant compost instead of manure and fertilizers
• They believe in a green cover without weed control
• Nitrogen is used as an anti-oxidant as a protectant to the wine throughout the process.

The Grape 

Amarone della Valpolicella is one of the top respected wines of Italy.  What makes this wine unique is the style in which it is produced, known as passito.  The process in producing these wines, appassimento, is when they harvest the grapes and dry the grapes, therefore, concentrating the sugars.  This process goes on for around 90-120 days. This results in fuller bodied, structured wines, high in alcohol, but that carry a nice elegance.   

Amarone is a wine where multiple grapes make up the blend of various levels including the primary grape, corvina, as well as corvinone, molinara and rondinella.  These wines retail at higher price points, but understanding the process and time period to produce these wines makes it understandable.  The law requires at least 2 years of aging and 4 years for a riserva.   

The Wine 

2015 Tenuta Sant’Antonio Amarone della Valpolicella Antonio Castagnedi selection DOCG 

Made of 70% corvina, 20% rondinella, 5% croatina and 5% oseleta.  These grapes were dried for about 3 months.  They were fermented with selected yeasts for 25 days in stainless steel and then aged for 2 years in 500 litre casks of French oak.  The wine was a deep garnet color with an intense nose of rich cherries and notes of raisins.  A full-bodied wine as Amarone typically is with good acid, elegant tannins and dried red fruits.  Some warmth on the finish, expected at about 15% alcohol.  I have tried a lot of Amarone from my visits to this region and I found this wine to be quite unique from the others, but I can appreciate wines for their differences.  The recommended aging on this wine is 15 years.  ABV 15% SRP $45 

I did try a couple of their other wines, the 2016 Tenuta Sant’Antonio Valpolicella Superiore Nafre DOC and the 2015 Tenuta Sant’Antonio Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso Monti Garbi.  As always, regardless of whether I received the wines as samples or not, I like to share with you the wines that I enjoyed the most and would recommend to my readers so I chose the Amarone to share with you.   

I hope to get to visit this area if you haven’t already as it has a lot to offer along with some great wines.
 

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*This wine was provided as a sample, but opinions are my own.

"Mai Dire Mai", Never Say Never with Pasqua Wines

Last week I took a trip back to Italy as I received an invitation from the Pasqua winery to go and visit the winery and their vineyards and taste some of the wines that they produce. It was a wonderful trip and myself along with two other international folks in the wine industry were warmly welcomed and treated very well.

The Pasqua winery is located in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy within the winemaking area of the Valpolicella. Their winery is specifically located in the Valpantena, one of the top winemaking areas of the Valpolicella. The winery started over 90 years ago and just recently celebrated their 90^th anniversary in 2015. 

Pasqua winery

Our trip started off with a guided tour of the Giardino Giusti, the serene and peaceful renaissance gardens located over the Adige River in Verona. The gardens reminded me very much of the Boboli Gardens of Florence, but on a smaller scale. The Giusti family actually originated from Florence.

Giardino Giusti

We proceeded to the Torre dei Lamberti in Piazza Dante after a quick aperol spritz, where we met Pasqua's PR and marketing person, Sara Biasi, who greeted us and kicked us off at a private tasting at the top of the tower. The tower was privately reserved for us as we made our way to the top with views overlooking all of Verona and even Lake Garda in the far distance. We started the evening enjoying a glass or two of the Pasqua Prosecco before proceeding to our dinner in at Cafe' Dante. 

Torre dei Lamberti

Views from the top

A beautiful night to sit outside in the piazza and we were graciously joined by the owner and President of the Pasqua winery, Umberto Pasqua. A very down to earth and personable gentleman. We sampled a number of the Pasqua wines including their prosecco, 11 minutes rose', Passione Sentimento Bianco and Rosso. The last pairing was my favorite as we paired the Sentimento Passione Rosso with risotto all'amarone drizzled with monte veronese cheese of the area.

President, Umberto Pasqua

Our next day was lovely as we started off visiting Pasqua's top vineyard site, Monte Vegro, located in the town of Ilasi in the Valpolicella. This winery was named Monte Vegro (monte=mountain and vegro=unattainable) due to the fact that many folks said that grapes couldn't be grown there. So the wines of this area are called Mai Dire Mai meaning “never say never”. 

Monte Vegro vineyards

The vineyards that day were loaded with sunshine on our visit as a single tractor traveled through the vines. Set high up on the hills with many south facing slopes the soil there was comprised with layers of limestone.  There is such a peacefulness I find when visiting vineyards and it's the perfect way to understand how the wines are developed as it all starts there. 

Limestone @ Monte Vegro

The vines reside on 26 hectacres and since land is so limited in the Valpolicella with maybe 1 hectacre changing hands every year it results in the price of the land to be rather expensive. It was mentioned by one of the guests/sommelier that the land costs about half a million a hectacre, but I don't have facts to back that up.

Next, we made our way to the Pasqua winery, which is very deceiving from the outside, but quite the operation with floors upon floors inside. I have to be honest that I have seen the label Pasqua wines before, but don't believe I had yet to try them. Even though the majority of their wines seem to be more bulk wine that either they grow or purchase the juice from other areas of Italy including Sicily, Tuscany and Puglia, the wines that we were fortunate to sample I found to be very enjoyable.

Upon arrival we were immediately introduced to the winemaker Giovanni Nordera, whom is actually a cousin of the family. He has been winemaker at the Pasqua winery for over 10 years and at the impressive age of only 38 years old. He had traveled to many wine regions of the world including Chile, South Africa and France working in the industry before he eventually ended up at the Pasqua winery. Giovanni walked us through all the wines you'll find listed below. 

Giovanni Nordera, winemaker

The winery produces about 14-15 million bottles a year. We toured the factory with Giovanni after our tasting and he walked us through the lab and the bottling operation where they typically bottle about 60,000 bottles a day. I always find those machines to be quite fascinating to watch. We walked through where the stainless steel tanks are kept where their largest tanks hold about 200,000 liters, which is mostly their pinot grigio as they produce about 3 million bottles of this wine. On our tour we were introduced to quite a unique room that was created for the launch of Pasqua's new rose' released this year called 11 Minutes.  Yes, those are hundreds of bottles hanging in a room surrounded by mirrors.  Pretty cool, huh?!

Room of Pasqua's 11 Minutes Rose'

After the tour Giovanni even walked us through making our own wine including blending, bottling, labeling and corking.  We finished lastly in the wine cellar where a dinner was being prepared for us directly amongst all the barrels.

An absolutely lovely time over the 2 days and I'll share with you a couple of the towns I visited after on upcoming blogs sharing some of the wines typically produced in those areas so stay tuned.

Below is the list of wines we tried over the couple days and there truly wasn't one that I didn't enjoy, some more than others.  My favorites during my visit were the Pasqua Passione Sentimento Bianco, Pasqua Mai Dire Mai Valpolicella Superiore and the Pasqua Mai Dire Mai Amarone della Valpolicella.  You'll see my notes on these particular favorites, but I'm happy to share others if there is interest.  Shoot me a message.

Pasqua Prosecco Spumante Brut DOC
2016 Pasqua 11 minutes Rose' delle Venezie IGT

2016 Pasqua Passione Sentimento Bianco IGT is made of 100% garganega these grapes go through the appasimento process, drying the grapes out on trays for 1 month in the fruitaio. This wine had good structure with aromatics of stone fruit and citrus.  On the palate it was dry and a nice balance of fruit and refreshing acidity leaving a round mouthfeel and lingering finish. ABV 13%  SRP $14

2015 Pasqua Passione Sentimento Rosso IGT
2012 Pasqua Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG

2012 Pasqua Mai Dire Mai Valpolicella Superiore DOC is made from with 50% corvina, 30% corvinone, 10% rondinella and 10% oseleta (a reinvigorated grape once facing extinction).  Aromas of ripe, rich dried red fruits.  A more traditional style of Valpolicella Superiore with lots of complexity including dried cherries, spice and bright acid.  Aged in tonneaux and barriques for 18 months.  This wine was drinking well, but can still withstand some aging. Only 4,000 bottles produced. ABV 15%  SRP $35

Pasqua Mai Dire Mai Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG is made from 65% corvina, 15% corvinone, 10% rondinella and 10% oseleta.  Displaying on the nose sweet, dried fruits.  A structured, concentrated wine loaded with rich, dark fruits showing hints of mint and toasty characteristics.  Aged 100% in new oak and barriques for 24 months.  This wine still needs some more time in the bottle.  ABV 16.5% SRP $150

2006 Pasqua 90^th anniversary Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG

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