Last week I featured day 1 of my
arrival to Verona including my winery tour, tasting and dinner with the Bolla winery. Today I'm sharing my 2nd day when I really
get immersed in the land of Valpolicella with 5 winery visits:
Albino Armani
Cesari
Guerrieri Riccardi
Monte Zovo
Tenuta Ugolini
Albino Armani
I toured the
Albino Armani winery and headquarters in the town of Dolce with export manager, Laura, and the winemaker's wife, Egle Armani. The Albino Armani winery was established back in 1607 when Albino's ancestors
transferred the land to him. Their wines are vinified in the areas of
Trentino where they have 2 wineries, Friuli, and the Veneto where
they have 3 wineries and have been producing Valpolicella wines since
2003. All of their wines are bottled at the Dolce headquarters in the
valley over the Montelissini mountains. They're in the process of
also building a new winery in Camporal in the hills of Marano that
are all terraced slopes of 400 meters.
Right: Egle, Left: Laura
A project of note, “Foja
Tondo”, that the Albino Armani winery is engaged in is focused
around the planting of old indigenous grapes that were facing extinction. Albino Armani is the
1st in the Valpolicella to do this. They have produced 40,000
bottles of these older indigenous grapes like the grape itself, foja
tondo, also known as casetta, and it has even become its own DOC,
Casetta DOC Terra dei Forti.
Albino Armani project with grapes facing extinction
Due to the variety of areas where
Albino Armani grows and harvests grapes it allows them to provide a
wide variety of wines of which I only sampled a small portion
including those of the Valpolicella and an interesting unfiltered
organic prosecco, Casa Belfi Colfondo Prosecco DOC. It's an
interesting winery with a wide variety of wine offerings to explore
and I appreciate their efforts in protecting ancient grapes before
they go extinct.
I've written about Cesari
wines in the past and discussed a few wines from their portfolio. Giacomo and Vivian were our tour guides of the
winery and it was followed by an enjoyable luncheon and sampling of many of their wines with Deborah Cesari, whose grandfather, Gerardo Cesari, started the winery in 1936. This winery is located in the heart of the Classico region of Valpolicella in Cavaion Veronese.
My favorite wine that we
tasted was definitely the 2006 Cesari Bosan Amarone della
Valpolicella Riserva which was a blend of 80% corvina and 20%
rondinella aged 8 months in barrique. This is the winery's prized
wine and was actually one of the wines as well from the blind tasting
revealed at the Anteprima Amarone. It was the 1998 Cesari Amarone
della Valpolicella Bosen that had nice acidity to support the tannins with juicier, fresh fruit. This is a well recognized winery name in
the states making the wines easily accessible to us consumers and
worth exploring.
Guerrieri Rizzardi
The Guerrieri
Rizzardi winery , located in Bardolino close to Lake Garda, was established in 1914 when the Guerrieri and
Rizzardi families joined forces, but the vineyards had been in the
families well before from the 15th and 17th
centuries. Their are 3 main estates all in the Classico zone of
Valpolicella that are all within 10 minutes of the headquarters to
preserve the freshness of the fruit during harvest. The winery
produces about 400,000 bottles itself with about 13,000 of those for Amarone production. The current winemaker, Guiseppe Riccardi, aims to produce wines that are expressive of the soil.
Daniel Stewart guiding us through Guerrieri Rizzardi
My top
favorite wines from the tasting were the 2013 Guerrieri Rizzardi
Costeggiolo Soave Classico, 2012 Guerrieri Rizzardi Bardolino and
lastly the 2009 Guerrieri Rizzardi Calcarole Amarone della
Valpolicella Classico which was awarded the 2014 Gambero Rosso “Red
Wine of the Year”.
Old vintages of Guerrieri Rizzardi wines
Monte Zovo
Our 4th stop of the day was Monte
Zovo, located in Tregnano in the Val d'Ilasi northeast of Verona, which is run by the Contini family and contains 4 brands producing
about 1.5 million bottles in total production on about 140 hectacres,
345 acres, including vineyards in Bardolino, Soave, Lugana and
Valpolicella, which consists of the most acreage. We briefly met the
owner Diego whom is also the winemaker and is 4th
generation along with his 2 sons. The winery consists of 3 levels
with bottling and fermentation on one floor, storage on the other and
the underground cellar where the temperature remains steady.
Another flight of tastings with my favorite being the 2007 Monte Zovo Amarone della Valpolicella.
Tenute Ugolini
The Tenute
Ugolini winery located in the hills of San Michele close to the town of Fumane, is aesthetically a beautiful winery with owners, Giambattista along with his two brothers, that have an interest in art where you can find Vinart, an art gallery within the winery where art is displayed for sale as well as a private collection of Andy Warhol paintings. The
art changes every 3 months so it's always worth a revisit. Giambattista's father passed away 20 years ago and at this point he decided to renovate
the winery. The family used to sell their grapes off from their 22
hectacres, 55 acres, but in 2014 he bottled his own with about 25%
of his production, but the rest still remains sold. The wines are
organically treated and next year will also be biological treated. My
favorite of the tasting was the 2011 Tenuta Ugolini Amarone Classico
where the fruit is sourced from 4 different vineyards so not
expressive of a specific cru or area of terroir, but the nicest wine
from the tasting.
Giambattista Ugolini & myself
Works of Art inside Tenute Ugolini
I could go on and on about these
wineries and at one point will readdress them in further detail, but
it gives you a taste of some of the wineries of this fine region and
the history behind them. If you have any questions from my visits I'm always happy to share information.
It's hard to easily convey the terroir
of Italy or any particular country since there are so
many elements that make up the terroir of a specific territory
nevermind the whole country. What is terroir? Terroir is everything
in the natural environment where vineyards are located and where wine
is produced. It includes everything from the different climates,
soils and topography. Some major factors affecting the wine regions throughout Italy are the lakes (i.e. Lake Garda, Lake Iseo), the mountains (the Alps to the north and the Apennines that run the whole country of Italy), soils (morainic glacial soil and volcanic soil especially in the south), oceans and seas (Tyrhennian, Adriatic and Ionian) the topography (plains, hills and mountains) and the climate that varies consistently throughout.
Lake Como
All these different elements take part in
affecting the wines produced in every wine region and it's all in
how the winemakers manage and deal with these elements
that affect the outcome of the grapes and ultimately the wine that is
produced. By understanding each individual terroir of a particular wine
region the winemaker can judge which grapes would grow best and
succeed or that will show a true expression of the grape or even a
unique quality. These decisions are what can make one wine stand out
from another. You can have one terroir, but have
multiple winemakers make different wines based off of that one
terroir due to their evaluations and choices made in not only the vineyard itself, but during the winemaking process itself.
Valle d'Aosta
It has been said that the Italians
base their food around the wine in each region. If you have been
fortunate enough like myself to visit most regions in Italy you will
understand as you get to try the local traditions in food and wine
how well they go together. For example, sangiovese in Tuscany, as discussed in my recent article, is
produced in many ways including Chianti Classico to Vino Nobile di
Montepulciano or Brunello di Montalcino. In Tuscany it pairs
very well with some Tuscan specialties like bistecca alla Fiorentina
or wild boar, cinghiale. What about Liguria, located along
the coastline of the Ligurian Sea, or the island of Sardinia where
there is a lot of shellfish? Makes sense that one of the local
grapes, Vermentino or pigato, would do well in this area with it's minerality,
raciness and citrus. If we think of other regions like Piedmont
with their rich dishes including porcini mushrooms and truffles, it's
understandable that there are earthy and rustic wines like Barolo and
Barbaresco in this region to complement the dishes.
I could go on and on about local
specialties, wine pairings, and how one grape in one region greatly differs when produced in another region, but there are twenty regions and we'd
be here all day. Plus, it's gets you a little hungry with all this
food talk. It's always important to me when visiting different
regions in not only Italy, but elsewhere, to experiment with local
cuisine and wines since this really is the true reason we travel, to
immerse ourselves in another culture. Italy couldn't be a more
perfect place to do so with so much variation in traditions and
terroir. To navigate the wine regions of Italy I find these maps to be of great use.
This past week I spent a week in the
Valpolicella wine region of the Veneto in northeastern Italy where I
experienced the L'Anteprima Amarone event, which was the release of
the 2011 Amarone vintage of 64 producers. Thanks to the Consorzio della Valpolicella our foreign press group traveled to over 10
wineries tasting through many of their wines including a number of
meetings with winemakers and wine dinners as well as the big
Anteprima Amarone event culminating my week.
The Arena in Verona
Four 9th Wine Pairing
Weekend #WinePW I thought this trip to Verona was a perfect way to
celebrate our Valentines theme with a perfect pairing from the region
with Recioto della Valpolicella and Sbrisolana. Verona, according to
its well-known home of Romeo and Juliet, is a city of love. Although
the story of Romeo and Juliet is a fable, traces of love are found in
the city, especially at Juliet's balcony in the city center, where
folks right letters to pin on the wall. In light of Valentine's Day I was in that same boat back
in 2009 when I first started dating my husband and left my own note
on the wall as corny as it sounds and I guess all dreams do come
true! Awwwww!
My note at Juliet's balcony Oct 11, 2009
While in Verona I was introduced to a
special dessert of the Veneto region called sbrisolana. It
originates from the verb sbricolare, which means to crumble.
According to Accademia Barilla sbrisolana was “created around the
16th century in the Northern Italian countryside, outside of
Mantua.....a popular dessert among poor families. In order to save
money, they would prepare the tart by mixing cornmeal, hazelnuts and
lard, instead of butter.” It was also enjoyed by the nobile
families made with finer ingredients including almonds and sugar.
Sbrisolana is a hard, crunchy, yet crumbly type of large cookie. The
top resembles a crumb cake top and the texture itself is reminiscent
of a sugar/shortbread cookie with almonds. It's easily enjoyed by
breaking it up into pieces and enjoying with some wine.
Sbrisolana
My experience of sbrisolana was paired
with the dessert wine of the region, Recioto della Valpolciella. If
you aren't familiar with Recioto della Valpolicella it is a red
dessert wine that derives from the same region of Amarone in the
Valpolicella and consists of the same grapes: corvina, corvinone and
rondinella, but only comes from the ear of the grape cluster known as
the recie. This part of the cluster receives the most
sunshine and is therefore the ripest with a higher sugar content.
Flight of Recioto della Valpolicella
I was such a fan I made sure to bring
some home myself and look forward to making it myself as well in the
future. There is nothing like enjoying typical products of the
region especially when they pair so well together. Hopefully you
will top off your Valentines Day with this sweet finish and enjoy it
as much as I did.
You can follow me on Vino Travels as I
take you day by day of my recent return from the Valpolicella wine
region meeting winemakers and sharing with you the true meaning of
what represents producing wine in the Valpolicella. I started this week with my first day at Bolla so join me!
My last night in Verona
Wine Pairing Weekend # 9 Bloggers: Be sure to check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with for the February Wine Pairing Weekend!
If you're reading this early enough, you can join us for a live Twitter chat on our theme "It's All About Romance" on Saturday, February 14, from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern Time. You can also visit our group Pinterest board to pin some great pairing ideas for later! Stay tuned for the March Wine Pairing Weekend, which will be on Saturday, March 14, 2015
My favorite wine that we
tasted was definitely the 2006 Cesari Bosan Amarone della
Valpolicella Riserva which was a blend of 80% corvina and 20%
rondinella aged 8 months in barrique. This is the winery's prized
wine and was actually one of the wines as well from the blind tasting
revealed at the Anteprima Amarone. It was the 1998 Cesari Amarone
della Valpolicella Bosen that had nice acidity to support the tannins with juicier, fresh fruit. This is a well recognized winery name in
the states making the wines easily accessible to us consumers and
worth exploring.
