The name Amarone is derived from Amarone della Valpolicella, the famous red wine from the Veneto region made in a peculiar way – before vinification, the over-ripe grapes are left to dry on mats, producing a powerful wine. The reason for this laborious method is to make a more concentrated wine from grapes which would normally produce a light-bodied variety.
Valpolicella is made predominantly from Corvina grapes; the Amarone version is made from the same grape types. Wine critic Robert Parker had described run-of-the-mill Valpolicella as “insipid industrial garbage”. Although this comment might be exaggerated, most Valpolicella is indeed simple, light-red and light-bodied, with lacklustre, attenuated fruit hinting of cherries and a dry, slightly bitter finish. This type of Valpolicella was no match for relatively cheap New World red wines with upfront fruit and mouthfeel.
However, more recently, a few Veneto producers have been making wines full of cherry-fruit flavours, but these remain a minority.
Amarone has a deep colour, with a dry or off-dry style, and is supposed to have a black-chocolate-type spicy flavour with a distinctly bitter finish (the name Amarone comes from amaro, meaning bitter). The fruit in Amarone has also been described by wine guru Oz Clarke as “bruised sourness”. This is an oxidative character that may not appeal to lovers of clean, precise and well-focused flavours, but its complexity is undeniable and some Amarone wines age wonderfully.
Thirty-three members of Il-Qatra club recently blind-tasted an Amarone and three Amarone-style wines. Members are given no information about the wines in the four glasses in front of them at dinner, and they score them anonymously, so their judgement is not influenced by the wine’s label. What instigated this session was our attendance at the launch of Marsovin Primus 2009 (14.5 per cent; €35). This wine is made from Ġellewża (60 per cent), a native grape and Syrah (40 per cent). The grapes are left on the vine to ripen well and are then sun-dried before vinification.
The Primus 2009 we tasted blind seemed to me totally different to the wine I had tasted at its launch, when it came across as a full-bodied wine with modern-style aromas, smooth tannins and good balance. At our tasting, it stood out as the most exuberant wine, with rich complex fruit on the nose, complex depth to the palate and good length – it seemed to have totally changed with a few years’ bottle-age.
Many members were impressed and the Primus scored a very close second place by the membership, including myself. It impressed even members who would normally look down on Maltese wines. I think it didn’t score first preference because some drinkers might have found its exuberance a bit too much and perhaps rather over-concentrated and overripe.
The Amarone we used as a benchmark was a little-known wine, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, Scarnocchio, Lena di Mezzo, Monte del Fra 2008 (15.5 per cent; €37). Most members preferred the Primus or this Amarone, with slightly more going for the Veneto wine.
These two wines were very different. The Amarone was seemingly the palest wine, in spite of a high alcohol content, and with a refined and elegant nose, good balance and freshness on the palate and good length. This was also my first preference. Some members felt it didn’t have the chocolate style of more typical Amarones. Wine Spectator gives it a score of 90 to 93 points, depending on vintages
Enamore 2010, Allegrini + Renacer (14.5 per cent; €29), from Mendoza in Argentina, is an Amarone-style wine made by Allegrini, the famous Veneto winemaking family, together with an Argentine producer. This wine is made from Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Bonarda grapes. It was the membership’s overall third preference, but I scored it into second place, shoulder to shoulder with the Primus. I felt it had a lovely, warm, rounded, refined nose and palate with good length. International critics give it a score from 89 to 91 points.
The fourth wine tasted was Testarossa 2008, Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, Pasetti (14 per cent; €25), made in central Italy from Montepulciano grapes, which is left to overripen on the vines. Both the membership and myself gave it last preference, but it scored Due Bicchieri by Gambero Rosso and was ‘commended’ by Decanter World Wine Awards in 2013. I found a pleasant, subdued nose and a rather unremarkable palate with no appreciable length. I presume more expressive wines push down less expressive ones in a blind contest.
Albert Cilia-Vincenti is a founding committee member of Il-Qatra wine club.