This is a classic Veronese wine made by the traditional method of drying the grapes to give it added richness. A full-bodied, muscular red, mainly sweet in the middle and a touch of dryness on the finish.

• Country: Italy
• Region: Valpolicella
• Grape: Corvina & Rondinella & Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon
• Style: Sweet Dessert Red Wine
• Alcohol: 14%
• Bottle size: 37.5cl
• Other: Vegetarian

Amarone and Recioto are the 2 most important wines of Valpolicella, they are well known all over the world for their unique characteristics. Both wines are red, made from raised Appassimento (dried-out concentrated) grapes, the difference is Amarone is dry & Recioto is sweet.

In Amarone all the natural grape sugar is transformed into alcohol by the yeast, so it is a dry wine; in Recioto alcoholic fermentation is stopped in the middle to leave some natural sugars & a lower alcohol content, so is a sweet dessert wine. Recioto was already known in Roman times, Amarone has a recent history: a wine maker forgot to stop the fermentation in a Recioto barrel.

Well-made Amarone is one of Italy's glories; it is a rich, deep flavoured wine with a dry, bitter finish on the palate. It is made by selecting the ripest bunches of the grapes, then drying them for several months on wooden slats or trays and finally pressing and fermenting them. The effect of drying is to reduce the water content so that the wine produced has more concentration of flavour. Historically this passito wine was made as a sweet wine or Recioto then in the 1930s a producer inadvertently fermented the wine dry, so Amarone was born. It is a fairly recent wine in the sense that it was first recorded as being sold in 1938 although it was only in the 1950’s that Amarone started to become popular.