I’ve noticed more Amarone around on store shelves and at online retailers this past year or so, and I just discovered why. Between 2006 and 2008, Amarone production zoomed from nine million bottles a year to 15 million bottles.
I’m not a wine industry wonk but I was paying attention because I am planning to open a bottle of 2000 Amerone one night this fall—or as soon as I figure out the right Italian menu to go with it.
Amarone, from the Veneto region, is a romantic wine. The best bunches of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes are hand picked and left to air dry on straw or bamboo mats in a loft for about four months. After they shrivel and lose up to 40 percent of their weight, they are made into wine known for its intensity and complexity.
Traditionally it was made only by a small group of families, but now almost half the grapes grown in the Valpolicella region are used to produce Amarone—apparently using less than the best quality fruit and taking production short cuts. In response, the old families are now limiting their total production and putting a hologram badge on their bottles.
The two bottles in my cellar come from Masi, one of the old and trusted winemakers, so I am confident they are good. Amarone is expensive—usually $100 or more for an older vintage—and I would not trust a bargain Amarone or one from an unfamiliar producer these days.