October 18 Amarone tasting at Valentina Cubi’s
Valentina picked us up from the bus stop in Valpolicella and whisked us to her winery, where some thirty wine aficionados gathered for a vertical tasting of her Amarone “Morar”: 1997, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012.
Valentina, a former grade-school teacher, took over the running of her husband’s family vineyards when she retired. “You can only do so much dusting,” she said. The company had been selling its wines to major wineries for bottling. It was Valentina who decided to bring the estate’s wines out under her own label: a decision her husband did not wholeheartedly share but accepted with a good-natured shrug. He, after all, owned a successful company of his own. When she subsequently decided to go organic, he threw up his hands in despair.
The first vintage of Amarone the company produced was the 1997. Its rich perfume rose from the glass as it was poured. There is a tight weave of tertiary aromas: almonds, soft leather. On the palate, there is a burst of full, sweet caramel-tinged brambly fruit and cloves. After ten minutes it settles into itself, and a bruised cherry flavor emerges.
Each of the subsequent wines showed the evolution of the house style. The 2012 took me by surprise. It was a very attractive wine but one that I would not have recognized as an Amarone. The color is a translucent, rose-tinged ruby. On the palate a soft vibration of acidity infuses the elegant, supple fruit. “This is exactly the kind of wine I wanted to produce,” says Valentina.
October 13 Big Doings in the Colli Berici
First things first. The Colli Berici production area lies south of the Veneto city of Vicenza. Major red grape varieties are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Merlot, Pinot Nero and Tai Rosso. White varieties include, among others: Chardonnay, Garganega, Manzoni Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon.
We arrived in the little town of Ponte di Barbarano for the annual Gustus tasting of Colli Berici wines. The centerpiece of the evening was a blind tasting, pairing red wines from the area with similar wines from France, the United States and Spain, including classified growth Bordeaux. The cost of this latter wine was 165 Euros a bottle and it did not come up to the standard of most of the Colli Berici Merlot-based wines in the blind tasting. The price of these local wines, by the way, was between 10 and 15% of the cost of their French contender.
What we took away from this tasting is the incredible value for money that is available from this zone. Generally speaking, the wines we tasted were in the 20 Euro per bottle range.
At the open tasting, Punto Zero’s Carmenère 2016 stood out. It was clean and elegant. A tightly woven scent of blueberries, forest fruits and a touch of gooseberry. These flavors were carried through on to the palate. A fascinating wine. Great length.
There were many other excellent producers but time constraints made it impossible for me to taste wines from all of them. But I do recommend that if you see a Colli Berici wine on a wine list or in a shop, give it a try. You just might discover something wonderful.