Impromptu celebration with an Amarone and a Barolo

I could not argue with Emilio's rationale

Emilio decided that we needed to bring home a Barolo and an Amarone when we made a pit stop for some bread and lactose free milk at the neighborhood Coop a few weeks ago. He suddenly felt like celebrating our Saturday lunch;  his parents had arrived a few days before from Spain and we hadn't seen them for some time (c. 3 long weeks). I like both wines enormously and had no problem with this.

Amarone or its proper and longer name, Amarone della Valpolicella (DOCG), originates from the Valpolicella wine region located in Veneto in north Italy. It is made from older and riper grapes that have been especially dried in airing chambers and for this reason provides a higher concentration of sugar, alcohol and flavour. Similar to other types of Valpolicella wines, Amarone is typically made from a blend of local grapes which includes Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara. It takes twice as much grapes to make a given amount of Amarone so it  typically sells at a premium. Wine Folly in this cool note offers a description of Amarone within the context of Valpolicella wines and highlights that the "Valpolicella Ripasso" ("baby Amarone") could be a less expensive substitute as it is essentially "Valpolicella Classico" mixed with left over grape skins from making Amarone and thus provides additional body and flavour. Interesting! 

Wine from Barolo DOCG (like Babaresco DOCG - which I wrote about last month here), originates from the Piedmont region in the north west of Italy and is also made from the Nebbiolo grape which is difficult to cultivate. The Barolo wine region is 3x larger than that of Babaresco and consist of 11 municipalities in addition to Barolo (Castiglione Falletto, Cherasco, Diano d'Alba, Grinzane Cavour, La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, Roddi, Serralunga d'Alba and Verduno). The soils in these municipalities contain calcareous clay (made of calcium carbonate and high in chalk/limestone and fossilised shells) and sandstone but their age and combination vary, resulting in 2 overall grouped areas producing wine with distinct characteristics and strength. When compared to Babaresco however, Barolo taken broadly tends to be higher in tannin and heavier in weight because of the difference in maceration period (longer for Barolo), soil and climate (despite being only a few miles away - causing the grapes in Barolo to ripe later) and laws that require Barolo wine to be aged 3 years (vs. Babaresco's 2 years). 

Back home: we tasted the Amarone 2011 VigneAlte from Zeni (29.95 CHF c.25 Euro) and Barolo 2009 Sori Paradiso by Tenuta Cappallotto (32 CHF c.26 Euro) over a magnificent late and long (Spanish) lunch of roasted lamb - my mother in law's signature dish which everyone in the family loves. 

From the Amarone (the colour of pomegranate), we discerned dried fruits and a touch of butter. It was full bodied and provided a sweet long finish. The constituent grapes were Corvina (70%), Rodinella (20%) and Molinara (10%) and the wine was aged in old oak casks likely for 2 years. I'm just reading the fact sheet from the Zeni website and see that that the range is best enjoyed 5 years from when it was bottled. Haah..we drank it too early and should really know better by now! Even so, we all found the wine to be lip smackingly good.  Zeni winery has a long family history going back to the 1800s and is situated on the hill slopes along the eastern shore of Lake Garda. 

From the Barolo (light ruby in colour) we savoured red fruits, leather, licorice, spices and tobacco. As expected, it was full bodied* and possessed pronounced tannin. Tenuta Cappalloto is situated in the  Serralunga d'Alba and the soil from this area (like Castiglione Falletto and Monforte) contains sandstone clay. Wine produced from this area tend to be stronger, more intense and less fruity than those from the communes of Barolo (or Verduno, La Mora and Novello). The winery is owned by the Lanzavecchia family. 

After lunch (before Emilio and his padre had a chance to commence on their post lunch coma siesta), I conducted a survey of the Amarone vs. the Barolo. The former won with a score of 3:1.


* to me; Emilio claimed it to be medium-bodied

Blind tasting - Barbaresco 2008

Surprise blind tasting: Emilio disoriented me the other day, pulling out a bottle from the basement, heavily disguised with kitchen foil, asking me to taste and guess its country of origin, age and type of grape. Que? It's an almost impossible task under normal circumstances, an outright unmanageable feat with a nose and taste bud that had not entirely recovered from the flu. The best I could do was to offer a kind of description. It looked old-ish (the wine was a shade of red closer to amber than dark ruby at the rim), smelled of fruits and flowers (even with a semi-blocked nose) and tasted moderate on many levels: acidity, level of tannin and body. A nice medium length finish. An 'OK' taste which improved after some rest. (edit: I thought it was Spanish). It turned out to be a 6 year old Barbaresco. One of the many bottles that Emilio had ordered online last July to diversify a little bit away from Spain and expand our Italian collection. 

Barbaresco DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, the best classification for Italian wine), is exclusively made from the Nebbiolo grape harvested not only from the village of Barberesco, but also in the neighbouring ones of Treiso, Neive and Alba. Located in the north west of Italy, in the wine region of Piedmont (also home to my favourite Barolo and the sparkling white wines of Astic), it is about 2 hours drive from Milan and an hour and a half from the French border. Nebbiolo grapes, also used to create Barolo, are finicky to grow and very sensitive to frosts and soil. For this reason, they do not thrive outside their hometown. 

The bottle Emilio wrapped up was named "Riserva Ovella 2008". It is produced by Produttori del Barbaresco.  Riservas from Barberesco DOCG are required to age for 4 years, one of which has to be in an oak barrel (Note: a Barolo Riserva has to age for a minimum of 5 years). Barbaresco typically ages well and needs at least 10 years to flourish and showcase its complex flavour, so in all likelihood we had opened the bottle 4 years too soon. Produttori del Barbaresco was founded in 1958 by the priest of the Barbaresco village, who pooled together 19 small growers to survive economically. The first three vintages were made in the church basement. It has grown since then - they have moved out from the basement and there are now 56 Nebbiolo vineyards in the group, accounting for 1/6 of the vineyards in the Barbaresco wine region.