Amarone della Valpolicella - Colle Cerè

The Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG by Colle Cerè is a wine that leaves no room for uncertainty — 16.5% alcohol, 60 months in large Slavonian oak barrels, 90 days of traditional fruttaio appassimento. Numbers that tell of a radical and courageous production approach, that of a winery that has chosen not to compromise on the concentration and longevity of its Amarone.

Colle Cerè is a Valpolicella Classica estate that produces with rigorous traditional methods — the 4,000 annual bottles of this Amarone testify to an artisan production that prioritises quality over quantity. The blend is the classic one of the appellation: Corvina 50%, Corvinone 40%, Rondinella 10% — three indigenous Veronese varieties that together give life to one of the most complex and long-lived wines in Italy.

The grapes are hand-selected and dried for 90 days in the fruttaio, losing over 35% of their weight and naturally concentrating sugars, polyphenols and aromas slowly and progressively. Fermentation is long and patient, and ageing takes place for 60 months — five full years — in large 20-hectolitre Slavonian oak barrels, the traditional choice that guarantees progressive oxygenation without imparting new wood notes to the wine. This is followed by a further 6 months of bottle ageing before release. The 2020 vintage, particularly favourable in the Valpolicella, produced grapes of exceptional concentration and phenolic ripeness that express themselves fully in this Amarone.

On the nose it is powerful and complex: black cherry and morello jam, blackberry, bitter cacao, pipe tobacco, dried violet, warm spice, leather and a deep mineral and balsamic base. On the palate it is imposing — massive tannins already extraordinarily well-integrated after the extended ageing, an enveloping glyceric sweetness that balances the alcoholic power, a fresh acidity providing vertical drive and longevity and an exceptionally long finish that evolves for minutes with notes of concentrated dark fruit, spice and minerality. Serve at 18-20°C with at least 2 hours of decanting. Expresses its best between 5 and 20 years from the harvest.