The Appassimento Method — Wine Made Through Transformation
Amarone della Valpolicella is one of the wine world’s most singular creations — a wine born not from fresh grapes pressed immediately after harvest, but from grapes that have been dried, shrivelled, and concentrated over months in carefully ventilated lofts before fermentation begins. This technique, known as appassimento , transforms Corvina and its companion varieties into something approaching a different substance entirely: intensely sweet in sugar potential, acidic and tannic from concentration, aromatic with dried fruit, chocolate, and spice.
The process begins in late September and October, when the best bunches are selected at harvest and laid out on bamboo racks (or in traditional wooden crates) in the fruttai — the elevated drying lofts that ventilate the hillside estates above Verona. For ninety to one hundred and twenty days, the grapes lose thirty to forty percent of their weight as water evaporates, concentrating everything within: sugar, acid, tannin, flavour compounds, and the earthy, funky character of Botrytis cinerea (noble rot), which often develops in small amounts and adds complexity.
What distinguishes Amarone from the sweet Recioto della Valpolicella — the ancient, original version of this wine — is fermentation to completion. The dried grapes are pressed in January or February, and the must ferments fully dry despite the enormous sugar load, reaching fourteen to seventeen percent alcohol. The name Amarone itself means “the bitter one” — a direct contrast to Recioto, the sweet version.
The Zones of Valpolicella and the Producers Who Define Them
The Valpolicella denomination encompasses three main zones, and their distinction matters enormously for understanding the wine. The Classico zone — the original, historic heartland in the hills above the communes of Negrar, Marano di Valpolicella, and Fumane — is universally regarded as the most prestigious. Steep, terraced vineyards on volcanic basalt and limestone soils, with excellent ventilation and cool nighttime temperatures, produce Amarone of the greatest complexity and longevity. It is here that the region’s legendary producers are concentrated.
The Valpantena valley to the east produces wines with a slightly lighter character, while the broader Valpolicella allargata (the extended zone) encompasses flatter terrain and higher volumes — reliable, approachable Amarone, but rarely reaching the heights of Classico.
Quintarelli — The Legend
Giuseppe Quintarelli was, for most of the twentieth century, the conscience and standard-bearer of Valpolicella. His wines — made with obsessive attention to the appassimento, aged for five to eight years in large old oak casks before release — became the reference point against which all others were measured. Quintarelli Amarone is not a wine you drink young; it is a wine you lay down for a decade, open reverently, and pour for people who understand what they are holding. The estate continues under his family’s stewardship, and the quality is undiminished.
Dal Forno Romano — The Extreme Visionary
If Quintarelli represents Amarone’s traditional soul, Romano Dal Forno represents its most extreme modern expression. Working in the Illasi valley outside the Classico zone, Dal Forno extends the drying period longer than anyone, reduces yields to levels that would horrify even Burgundian vignerons, and produces wines of almost impossible concentration. A Dal Forno Amarone is rarely available, extremely expensive, and capable of ageing for thirty or forty years. It is the proof that Valpolicella, given the right hands, can produce wines of world-class ambition.
Ripasso — The Bridge Between Worlds
One of the Veneto’s most clever innovations is the Ripasso technique — standard Valpolicella Superiore wine re-fermented on the pressed skins of the dried Amarone grapes. This secondary fermentation adds body, dried fruit character, and complexity to what would otherwise be a simple red, producing a wine that sits stylistically between Valpolicella and Amarone at roughly half the price. Quality Ripasso from producers like Masi (the house that popularised the technique commercially) and Zenato offers some of Italy’s finest everyday drinking.
Why Amarone Ages and What Happens When It Does
Great Amarone is released with a minimum of four years’ ageing by law, but the finest examples benefit from ten to twenty-five years of cellaring. The transformation with time is remarkable: the dense, dark, almost impenetrable fruit of youth opens gradually into a wine of extraordinary complexity, where dried cherry, fig, and tobacco give way to leather, truffle, coffee, and a haunting dried-rose perfume. The tannins, formidable in early life, integrate into a structure of velvet and resolve. The acidity — always present beneath the mass of fruit — provides freshness and focus that prevents these powerful wines from becoming heavy or cloying.
Choosing when to open a great Amarone is one of the sommelier’s more pleasurable dilemmas. A 2007 Quintarelli drunk now is magnificent and opening up. The same wine in 2030 will be different, deeper, more complex — and equally magnificent. Few wines in the world offer this kind of extended pleasure arc.