jamie goode's wine blog: Seductive Italian red

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Seductive Italian red

After a trip to Chianti country, I'm in a mood for Italian reds, and here's a good one. It's not from Tuscany, but the Veneto. It's delicious and quite elegant.

Guerrieri Rizzardi 'Pojega' Ripasso 2006 Valpolicella DOC Classico Superiore, Italy
A single-vineyard wine made primarily from Corvina and Corvinone grape varieties, then aged in oak. It shows sweet cherry and berry fruit character with a liqueur-like purity, as well as some subtle earthy, spicy elements in the background. It's really quite elegant with good concentration, yet at the same time a lightness and purity to the fruit. There's a bit of textural richness but it never loses it fresh, cherryish fruity character. 90/100 (£9.99 HBJ Wines, Longford Wines)
I should add something about 'Ripasso', which is followed on the label by 'TM'. This is a technique devised by a producer called Masi in the 1960s, who trademarked the term, but have recently released it to be used by other producers in the region. The idea is that after Amarone, made by drying grapes before fermentation, has finished its fermentation, Valpolicella wine is introduced to the tank and re-ferments on the lees and skins of the Amarone. I'm not sure of the wine science underlying this, but the results are often interesting, as they are here.

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3 Comments:

At 12:23 PM, Anonymous Lorenzo said...

good stuff! they make a killer amarone too. if you enjoy this type of wine, i recommend trying the santi bardolino as well » http://tinyurl.com/3qta7e

 
At 7:46 AM, Blogger Jamie said...

Yes, I have a bottle of the amarone in the tasting queue.

 
At 9:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a great wine!!

 

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