Day 1: Tour of Bolla winery & wine dinner

I was lucky to escape the unbelievable Boston storms that we have been experiencing over the past 2 weeks a day early by venturing over to Italy for my 8^th trip. I was provided the opportunity by the Consorzio della Valpolicella to discover not only all the wines of the Valpolciella, but in particular Amarone and the 2011 Amarone release that will lastly be revealed in my blogs with the Anteprima Amarone event. I'll share with you throughout the next couple weeks my visits to the wineries of this region, wines I've tasted and the winemakers I met. Of course food needs to be integrated since it's such a part of the Italian lifestyle as well.

Bolla tasting room

On my first day of arrival into Verona I attended my first winery tour of the trip that night of the Bolla winery. The Bolla winery located in San Pietro in Cariano is their headquarters that is located in the southwestern part of the Valpolicella area in the Veneto. The Bolla winery began in 1883 by Abele Bolla. The current owner today is the Gruppo Italiano Vini that took part ownership in 2006 and then later bought the company outright in 2009. We were introduced to the winemaker Christian Scrinzi, Wine Director Giannantonio Marconi and Wine Educator Roberta Speronello. 

Left to Right: Christian Scrinzi, myself, Giannantonio Marconi

Bolla manages about 15 cellars and 800 hectacres, about 1975 acres, with corvina and rondinella being the most planted grapes.  Bolla's production is 10 million bottles with about 150,000 of those belonging to Amarone. Giannantonio has partaken in 22 harvests with Bolla so both him and Christian were able to provide a lot of insight into what they have seen take place over the years and the changes. 

 











A hundred winegrowers are part of the Gruppo Italiano Vini. The Bolla facilities in San Pietro is where Bolla also vinifies for the Santi and Lamberti wineries. In Bolla's wine cellar, known as “Cantina del Nonno” or “grandfather's cellar”, it contains almost 2000 barrels with the oldest barrel, Slavonian, dating back to 1883 and is still used to this day mostly for storage.

1883 wine barrel

One of Bolla's successful projects over the years has been the education centers they have established for wine growers. They have created 10 pruning schools to further educate the appropriate way to prune vineyards since this is where a lot of it starts for the producers. In this region in particular the pergola system is used a lot in addition to guyot.

Following our tour we sampled from the barrel the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico “Le Origine” 2011 that is made available in November 2018 and the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico “Rhetico” 2011 which will be made available November 2016. According to Giannantonio 2011 was a textbook year.  In the Anteprima Amarone event at the end of my trip I attended a blind tasting lead by Luca Martini whom is AIS (Associazione Italiana Sommelier) world's best sommelier in 2013. In the blind tasting of the 1998 bottles one was revealed to be the Bolla Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 1998 Le Origini.

Our wine tasting at Bolla was followed by a wonderful dinner at the Enoteca della Valpolicella in Fumane of the Valpolicella with Christian, Giannantonio and Roberta. It was a wonderful opportunity to sample many more of the fine wines of Bolla paired with courses chosen by the Enoteca. As you'll see we sampled the following pairings:

• 2013 Bolla Tufaie Soave Superiore Classico
• 2012 Bolla Colforte Valpolicella Classico Superiore
• 2011 Bolla Creso Rosso IGT
• 2009 Bolla Rhetico Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
• 2008 Bolla Le Origini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
• 2003 Bolla Le Origini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
  
  

  

   
  

   

  
  
   
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  

  

To say the least it was a great way to start the week and I look forward to sharing with you many more winery visits over the next couple weeks. Stay tuned and ciao for now!

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Valpolicella, Amarone & winemaker Giuseppe Nicolis of Nicolis Winery

Last night I had a great tasting as usual at Gordon's Fine Wines in Waltham, MA. The star of the night was the winemaker Giuseppe Nicolis of Nicolis winery in the Valpolicella wine region in the Veneto, northeastern part of Italy. Below is the line up of wines that we tasted with Giuseppe walking us through each one.

Giuseppe Nicolis

2012 Valpolicella Classico

2010 Valpolicella Classico Ripasso "Seccal"

2007 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico

2006 Amarone della Valpolicella "Ambrosan"

2004 Recioto della Valpolicella Classico

The Nicolis family has been producing wines since 1951 from their estate vineyards in San Pietro in Cariano, but it wasn't until 1978 when they had their first bottling, labeled it and started to share their wines with the world. The winery has been passed down from Giuseppe's father Angelo. Giuseppe has quite a big family with 3 other brothers and 4 sisters. The men actively run the winery with Massimo doing the accounting, Giancarlo
focusing on the vineyards and Giuseppe left Masi to return to Nicolis Winery to take on the role as the enologist when his senior brother passed away. Their winery produces about 220,000 bottles a year and they own about 17.5k acres.

If you're not familiar with this region it resembles a hand with 5 hills and the valleys in between. Whites like pinot grigio and prosecco are grown here, but they are famous for their reds, in particular Valpolicella and Amarone, also known as “baby brunello”. This region has been producing high quality wines for ages now and it wasn't until 2010 when they were granted the right to label their wines D.O.C.G for those that qualify.

For Giuseppe 2007 was a great vintage, but he states that there isn't much difference in vintages because if they face undesirable conditions they won't produce, which is what they decided upon in 1999 and 2002. 2013 hasn't been a favorable vintage as well due to hailstorms that resulted in a lower yield.

You can reference one of my earlier posts about Amarone and Valpolicella wines here, but I'll touch upon the highlights of Amarone produced by the Nicolis winery. They dry their grapes single layer in plastic boxes in temperature and humidity controlled rooms where they are checked daily for molding. Some vintners play with the temperature by increasing or decreasing it, but this can affect the taste and aromas dramatically. They are then pressed in January. The yield is no greater than 40% of the other wines due to the process. About 60-70% of the juice is lost during this process to make the grapes more concentrated. The juice is aged 30 months in Slavonian oak and another 6 months in the bottle.

Nicolis wines
The '12 Valpolicella Classico was a young, fresh, simple wine with mouthwatering acidity and a nice finish. It's best to be enjoyed 3 afters after bottling by itself, with pasta or an appertivo. Next, I tried the '10 Valpolicella Classico Ripasso style named “Seccal”, which is a vineyard site established long ago they believe was named this due to the dryness of the area with the word stemming from
“secco”, meaning dry. This wine was harvested in October and pressed in January. It was refermented on the lees of the Amarone, which creates the structure to this wine. It was very easy drinking, smooth and had nice balance with rich fruit and a hint of green bell pepper. 

Moving on to the '07 Amarone della Valpolicella D.O.C.G, which is sourced from three different vineyard sites and the '06 Amarone della Valpolicella “Ambrosan”, which is a single-vineyard wine. It was fun to compare these two wines back to back. Last month '07 Amarone received 90 points from the Wine Spectator and the '06 Ambrosan is a Tre Bicchieri winner. The Ambrosan had a higher alcohol content of about 16-16.5% compared to the '07, which was 15%, but I didn't pick up the high alcohol level, except in the '07. They were very different wines, which proves to you what a single-vineyard site can produce. I was a big fan of the Ambrosan due to the elegance of it and the vanilla profile. It was very smooth and had feminine qualities. The '07 Amarone had more complexities with tobacco notes and subtle tannins. Lastly, we finished with the '04 Recioto della Valpolicella, a dessert style wine. It had deep color with a velvety richness and with the sweetness makes it a perfect way to end a meal.

Amarone wines can be aged for up to 15+ years and these Amarones that were2006 and 2007, had been opened an hour and the 2006 single vineyard Ambrosan was drinking beautifully, but I would've either aged the 2007 or decanted it longer. They can be enjoyed with meats, game and robust cheeses.

In our day and age some folks aren't willing to wait to drink wines and that's why decanting can play a big role in opening up these wines so they can be enjoyed now. An idea is to buy a couple bottles, enjoy one now and save the other to compare years from now and experience the life of the wine as it ages through the years.

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