Tasting notes: Scuola Grande Amarone D.O.C.G. della Valpolicella
Scuola Grande Amarone D.O.C.G. della Valpolicella. Powerful, warm flavours with light tannins. A delicious bouquet of cherry, plum, and black cherries under liquor with hints of toasted almond. Interesting final notes of coffee, tobacco and cocoa. Colour-wise, this is deep, dark, intense, with pleasant slight granite shades.
Food Match:
Amarone della Valpolicella combines well with game and grilled red meats as well as with long seasoned aged hard cheese.
Harvest and Grape Picking: Scuola Grande Amarone D.O.C.G. della Valpolicella
The grapes are carefully sorted in the vineyards and only healthy ripe clusters are harvested. They are then put in single layer wooden crates or bamboo frames. This procedure allows the air to circulate and prevent the crushing of the grapes. The so arranged clusters are then placed in winery drying cellars, these perfectly ventilated places, in order to ensure their best preservation. The grapes remain in these cellars for 3-4 months until they have lost at least one half of the initial weight and a sugar concentration of 25%-30% remains in the grapes. This is the phase when the final checks are carried out in order to determine the quality of the dried grapes and proceed with the grape crushing process.
Winemaking:
Once concluded the phase of skin racking and pressing, the grapes are placed in a particular winemaking machine where the crushed grapes can be heated so that the fermentation temperature be kept under control. This takes place in the months of January-February. During this phase it is also possible to break the vinaccia crust this in order to enhance the colour and soft tanning extraction which contributes to softening the wine, giving it pronounced fruity notes. Once concluded the fermentation process, the wine is placed in wooden barrels to age and for this large Slavonian oak barrels and French oak barriques are
used. After the wood aging process “affinamento”, the Amarone is checked and tasted by oenologists. This phase is concluded by deciding which cuvee will be placed in bottles. Once bottled, the wine is left in “affinamento” to age for a period before release to the market.
