Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2017

This classic Amarone opens up with dark and ripe black cherry and plum mixed with sweet baking spices and roasted coffee. The wine's palate is focused on its primary blackberry fruit notes with chocolate and sweet and savory spices. The wine is well structured with supple tannins and a long finish. Drink now-2035.

There's a spicy citrus twang that enlivens the dusty black raspberries and exotic spices that waft up from the 2017 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. It’s silken and deeply textural, with a bitter tinge of cinnamon and cacao up front that gives way to sweet wild berries and balsam herbs. There’s a wild air of autumnal spices and inner florals within, as well as saline-minerals that add salty depths. The 2017 finishes incredibly long but also youthfully tense and concentrated. There is a bit of heat that pokes out, but doesn’t get in the way, as nuances of rose and dark chocolate slowly fade. This beastly Amarone will require some cellaring to come fully into focus.

Opening to dried fruit and savory spice, the Zenato 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico leaves no doubt that it was made with the appassimento process, which sees grapes turn into raisins before winemaking. The blend is 80% Corvina, 10% Rondinella and Oseleta and Croatina representing the last 10%. The wine is open-knit and slightly oxidative, and this suggests a near or medium-term drinking window. There is a soft dose of sweetness on the close. Production is 75,000 bottles. Drink 2022-2033.

Dark and tangy, this medium- to full-bodied red has hints of crushed pine, violet and mandarin orange peel accenting blackberry fruit, minerally earth and iron. Well-spiced and expressive on the chewy finish. Corvina, Rondinella, Oseleta and Croatina. Drink now through 2027. 12,500 cases made, 2,450 cases imported.