Valpolicella - Superiore - Campo Denari - Zanoni

Zanoni’s Valpolicella Superiore DOC Campo Denari is the wine that demonstrates just how interesting the Superiore category can be when a producer decides to treat it with the same seriousness reserved for great appassimento wines - not simply a Valpolicella aged for a few extra months, but a Superiore made with an ambitious production technique that comes close to Ripasso without being a Ripasso, and to Amarone without being an Amarone.

“Campo Denari” - the field of coins, an ancient vineyard plot whose name evokes the agricultural history and viticultural vocation of these soils around Verona. For this wine, Zanoni selects 80% Corvina and 20% Rondinella grapes from specific vineyards and applies an unusual and interesting production technique: a partial 20-day drying period - not Amarone’s 90 days, nor the Classico’s zero days, but a middle ground that slightly concentrates the grapes without radically transforming them, increasing aromatic complexity and structure without losing the varietal freshness of young Corvina. This brief drying period is Campo Denari’s signature - the technical detail that distinguishes it from any other Valpolicella Superiore in the catalogue.

After vinification, the wine matures for 18 months in French oak barriques - a longer and more intense choice than for Valli di Mezzo, giving Campo Denari more pronounced tannic structure and stronger spicy and vanilla notes - followed by 12 months in bottle before release. That is more than 3 years in total from harvest to customer, a remarkable amount of time for a Valpolicella Superiore, and one that is immediately apparent in the glass.

The nose is richer and more complex than Valli di Mezzo: ripe cherry and sour-cherry preserve, blackberry, plum, sweet spices, vanilla, light tobacco, dried violet and a balsamic hint of Veronese herbs. On the palate it is full and enveloping - 14.5% alcohol is well integrated, the tannins are present and already well smoothed by the barrique and bottle ageing, a glycerine-like sweetness rounds out the structure, and fresh acidity ensures balance, leading to a medium-long finish with notes of concentrated red fruit, spices and well-integrated oak. It is not a Ripasso, but it has the structure of a serious Ripasso. It is not an Amarone, but it has the complexity of a wine that has learned something from Amarone. Serve at 16-17°C.

At €21, for a Superiore with partial drying and 18 months in French barriques, it offers one of the most interesting quality-to-price ratios in the entire Zanoni range and the Emporio Divino catalogue.