At a private tasting at Bacco last month, we sampled some 10-12 wines from the Veneto region in Italy. It was to be the first time I'd taste an Amarone, and a critical moment in my love of wine.
M graced us with a bottle of 1990 Allegrini... it was silk and velvet all in the same bottle. It was dense and rich like port, without any of the sugar. It was chocolate and coffee and leather and I fell in love.
Of course, Amarone is notoriously expensive (keep reading to discover why). So, before I started to bid, barter & beg for rather pricy bottles of Allegrini Amarone (which, I'm apparently starting a vertical of, natch), I figured I had better find out if C even likes the stuff - not that it would have stopped me... anyway, I digress.
I was at K & L the other day, and stumbled upon a bottle of 2000 Luigi Righetti Amarone for $20. Could it be any good? I chatted with one of the guys there for a few minutes and he assured me that yes, it was good. Of course it's not an Allegrini or Tedeschi... but at $20, it's worth a try, and certainly has most of the Amarone character I was so interested to "test" out on C.
The Righetti did not disappoint. Sure, it was substantially tamer than the Allegrini, but it still had the beautiful raisiny flavors and pipe-tobacco notes I love so much. It was a suprisingly well-balanced wine for the price point.
The story behind Amarone is interesting. Because of the Veneto's cooler climate, the red wines they had long been able to produce were lighter, softer styles. Somewhere along the way, they decided to experiment with various methods of extracting more flavor from the grapes, and hit on the idea of partially drying the grapes first, then crushing them.
This method left the grapes susceptible to the elements - a single heavy rain in the fall could cause the grapes to mold, and leave an unpleasant flavor in the finished wine. Today, many producers are using fans and temperature/humidity controlled drying rooms to protect the grapes.
Ultimately, the result is a wine that is powerfully extracted, with plenty of rich dried fruit & raisin character. And, it seems that you either love, adore, worship Amarone, or you can take it or leave it.
I'm clearly in the former camp.
