This was good wine, but unlike Orson Welles, I drank it before it's time.  I shouldn't have.  I know that Amarones usually take a decade until they hit their full stride.  This was a 98.  I was drinking it around Christmas time 2005.  Others whom I trust said it was ready.  I wanted to let it sit longer, but it kept looking at me everytime I opened my cellar, haunting me.  Finally, I had to do it.  So with reckless abandon, I cut off the foil, plunged the corkscrew into the cork,  a few quick twists, and pop!  Now I was committed.  No turning back.  The wine was everything an Amarone should be.  Deep purple color, heady aromas of tar, black fruit, and wet earth.  The palate was drenched with layer upon layer of fruit.  For those unfamiliar with Amarone, they take the grapes (primarily Corvina), dry them on mats, let them start to shrivel, and as the water evaporates from the grapes, the remaining juice is super concentrated.  The wines have high alcohol content (15% here).

The wine was very, very good.  But it wasn't quite ready.  Infanticide, so to speak.  I killed a wine-baby.  One or two more years and it may have been an elusive five star wine.  Instead, we'll have to settle for four.

4 stars if consumed now.  Likely to get better with more age.

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion