Valpolicella: Rosso, Ripasso, and Amarone Explored and Tasted

it's one of the most popular regions in the world but its wines are often misunderstood one reason for the misunderstanding might be that the bestselling styles are fairly recent inventions another reason surely is that they are made using a different approach in the vineyard and in the cellar so let's dive into the wines of valella by tasting them side by side Roso raso amarona and Roto [Music] and Vella is located in the northeast of Italy in the Veno region wine making has a long history here and many popular wine Styles like poo soave and Pino are made in the neighborhood while the wine STS raso and amarona might be considered Classics in the wine World they don't really have a long history amarona production only really started at the middle of the 20th century and the wine received doc status in 1968 and docg status in 2010 the Paso first became popular in the 1960s when it was developed and championed by the producer Mari and the doc raso de Pella was only created in 2010 to put that into perspective Mar sblo has been around for roughly the same time as raso and amarona was first officially recognized only 13 years before Napa Valley became an Ava the wine styles are however rooted in traditional wine making many Vineyards are still planted in the historical pagola system where the grapes grow higher above the ground and the process of drying grapes in order to produce rich rich and concentrated wines has been around for centuries and it is essential for the production of three out of four of the main wine Styles in Autumn The Ripe grapes are harvested but in order to produce an amarona orto you cannot just process Those Grapes as they would yield a light red wine that doesn't have much to do with either wine style instead those grapes are dried nowadays usually in plastic baskets in temperature controlled and humidity controlled warehouses that are well ventilated but let's jump into those Wines in order to get a better understanding of the differences and similarities we bought the three main wine Styles Roso raso and amarona from the same producer in order to be really able to compare and contrast them and I added Roto from a different producer just to pay homage to that historical wine style teski means Germans in Italian and they are located in the valua region they are farming 46 hectares of Vineyards and they have been involved in wine making for six Generations but they only really focused on high quality wine at the middle of the 20th century which is pretty common in the Veno region where there weren't too many high-end wineries 100 years ago so let's start with the 2022 luchina valella Roso which is sealed under a screw cap which doesn't happen that often in traditional Italy so the vines here are cultivated in the pagola system like I already said the Great grow fairly high above the ground in the pulara system which makes it easier to plant other crops below that's not necessarily a way of producing super high quality grapes but it's a traditional way of farming Vineyards from back in the day today they usually don't Farm anything below they using the traditional grape varieties Corina is considered to be the best grape variety from vichella but they also have rondinella molinara and Corona and some other grape varieties in the mix so for this one the grapes are harvested at the beginning of October and they are just crushed and fermented in stainless steel and out comes a fairly light colored red one so look at that that's a pretty typical bolella Roso kind of color it's really pale you can see your fingers through it it's 12 and a half% of alcohol So you you're not really reminded of amarona when you look at this so the wine smells of ripe cherries really bright and clear fruit Aromas but there is no no spiciness no Oak notes influencing the wine it's just really fruit driven really clean and bright but there's also not too much complexity I mean you also have some Plum characters there but it's really just in your face fresh and fruit drien but I I do like that so on the palette it's really fresh vibrant the acidity is actually sharp so so there's a real fresh finish there there aren't too many talents it's it's a light wine in a blind tasting you might just think this is this is a light Pon NOA for example so it's not a rich and concentrated wine it's really a lively wine representing the north of Italy so you got to remember that the region is famous for light white wines like sua pinoo and Poco and this wine kind of shows that teroa more than maybe an amarona does so it's it's a light fresh red so I'm going to rate this 86 points I think it's a good wine not a super interesting wine it's not very complex but it's fresh and Lively and I think with the right meal this this is quite beautiful but you got to remember that this is made from this so ripe grapes grapes that are not necessarily the most powerful and concentrated but grapes that can be turned into a light and fresh wine but now let's move on to the next so next up we have the 2019 San Roo Pella Paso The Vines here are cultivated in a guo system so the grapes are not hanging up here instead The Vineyard look more similar to what you're probably used to they also using Corina Corona rondinella and a bunch of other autocon grape varieties the grapes for this wine are harvested at the end of September beginning of October and they are then processed like just any other red wine however from a similar teroa similar grape varieties you get a wine that has 14 and 1 12% of alcohol so quite a a big difference and let's let's see the color yeah as you can see the color is not super dark but it's quite a bit darker than the previous wine so what happened here the wine was made from fresh berries but at the beginning of the following year after the Harvest the ma so the berries from the amarona production that were previously dried out are added to the wine and the wine referment giving it more power concentrate color Aroma all of the good stuff so this mounts more of dark berries like blackberries blueberries there's quite a lot of power there a little bit of spice a little bit of raisiny character obviously from the amarona raisins and yeah it's more complex there's also this lifted character that reminds me a little bit of vinegar just a touch of it on the parette there's much more power vity tenants that do have a bit of grip quite a lot of roundness richness and con conentration some chocolate flavor coming through as well so this is much more complex much more beefed up much more concentrated pretty pretty well made they also aged this wine in Slovenian Oak barrels so this obviously also changes the texture and the flavor of the wine but the main difference is that you don't just have berries just grapes you also have raisins in here so let's move on to the 2011 montoi amarona Reserva which is kind of the Pinnacle of this lineup so far at least montoi is the name of the vineyard and it became one of the first single Vineyard amarones when Lorenzo teski decided to vinify it separately so here the vineyard is again cultivated in the traditional Pula system and they are also planting the same grape varieties as for the other onnes Kina Kona rondinella and a bunch of other ones and the grapes were harvested at the end of September beginning of o CA so things are pretty similar to the two previous ones but what happens next is the most important thing so the grapes are harvested and they have to be really careful that they're fully intact that the Skins aren't broken in order to make sure that they will survive the next few months because they will be dried for 3 to four months in boxes in order to reduce the amount of water in the berries and concentrate everything else so sugar polyphenols and acidity are concentrated in those berries and The Taste and texture of the ingredients also changes so in order to understand what drying does to those berries you just need to taste a fresh table grape it's juicy watery there's not too much flavor there but it tastes okay and then taste erase super concentrated lots of sugar lots of concentration way more flavor so that's kind of what they're doing here obviously those berries don't look like those table grapes and the raisins will also not look the same they will be a little bit more juicier because if you if you want to make wine out of this that's going to get really tough so after a slow fermentation for 30 to 60 days the wine is aged in barrels for 4 years out comes a red wine that has 16% alcohol 16 so the previous one was 14 and 1/2 the first one was 12 and 1/2 and this is 16 but what's really important is the taste so let's give this a w of course this is darker in color but it's also slightly Garnet towards the rim at least because it's 13 years old on the nose it's ripe and Rich there's quite a lot of concentration it's pretty beautiful I mean this is a powerful red wine but it has quite a lot of Elegance and balance it smells of amarina cherries it has this flavor of cre de CIS there's also a little bit of cinnamon spice flavor going on there in the glass it's really complex and quite beautiful on the palette this is powerful and Rich the tenants are ripe and grippy but they still kind of dry out my mouth however the acidity is also there you know as those grapes are not harvested very late in order to get this concentration but instead are harvested fairly early and then concentrated afterwards you actually still have quite a lot of acidity in those berries and as the water evaporates the acidity is also concentrated so instead of just having this big fat alcoholic wine you also have like good freshness and liveliness at the end of the palette this actually doesn't have a lot of residual sugar in my opinion it has a really fresh and Lively finish and that at 16% alcohol the Finish is beautiful and long and this is a wine that I wouldn't I wouldn't want to drink every day because of this power and concentration but at the right moment this is just absolutely Del delous and with the right meal like stews and braced meat that just goes really well with this so I'll rate this 94 points I think it's delicious beautiful beautiful wine and it's not at the end of its cycle this still feels very young I think this can age for a couple of decades in order to like get a little rounder a little bit more mellow but it's also fun to drink now so the last wine is made in a similar fashion to amarona this is the 2018 Joan Alini Roto de laella Classico and this is also made from raisin grapes but instead of letting the wine ferment to dryness it actually still is quite sweet even though the alcohol is also at an elevated level 14% in this case so this style is actually quite historical and has been around for a long time in the region but it has fallen a bit out of favor like sweet wines in general I guess and it's not made in really large quantities anymore amarona is much more popular and the prices for amarona can be much higher than for Roto while this is actually quite a bit more difficult to make often times so this is still a baby I mean these wines can also age for quite a while so as you can see we are back at like a dark Ruby color there's less garet than in the amarona because the amarona was a little bit older and looking at it it just looks like a like a red wine you wouldn't expect it to be sweet this is really interesting I mean it doesn't smell like port for example you would maybe think a strong sweet red wine smells a bit poy this doesn't it smells quite intense but not as concentrated as port wine it has those strawberry characters together with cherry flavors doesn't have a lot of spice it's just really juicy and fresh it also smells of mcka and a little bit of vinegar again if you dry grapes you often get a touch of vinegar in those berries this can be avoided but the right amount can be actually beneficial so again instead of getting the super powerful ripe flavor of very late harvested grapes you're actually getting quite a lot of fresh fruit flavor of grapes that were harvested fairly early but then you also get the concentration and richness that you get from drying on the palette this is super rich and concentrated the acidity is definitely there so it's also quite fresh it's Lively it's juicy I mean I wouldn't want to drink even half half a liter of it like this bottle is not a full-size bottle one glass is just fine but it's it's it's a beautiful wine so yeah you can make delicious wines from wrinkled old raisins and this is a good example of that I'm going to rate it 91 points all right this was a delicious tasting it kind of highlighted to me that I should taste those wines more often even though I'm definitely not going to drink them on a very regular basis but they can be really delicious and they are quite special they're just different than most other Wines in the world so I hope you enjoyed this video if you did then please like it down here subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so already my question of the day is what do you think about the wines from viella do you drink them do you like them haven't you tried them or have you tried them let let me know Down Below in the comments but whatever you do stay thirsty [Music]

Channel: Konstantin Baum - Master of Wine

Views: 36,613

Keywords: Konstantin Baum, Constantine Baum, Constantin Baum, Constantin, Konstantin Baum Master of Wine, wine basics, Master of Wine, Master Sommelier, Sommelier, Tasting, Blind Tasting, Red Wine, White Wine, Bon Appetite, Andre Mack, Wineking, Expensive Wine, Cheap Wine, Tasting Wine, Blind tasting, Jay Wineking, Wine King Jay, Amarone, Ripasso, Valpolicella Wine, Recioto

Id: IFsGB-rRA9o

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Sun May 05 2024