Amarone della Valpolicella - Riserva - Hatteso - Garbole

The Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Riserva "Hatteso" by Garbole is the rarest and most ambitious wine from a winery that has already demonstrated, with the Heletto and the Hurlo, that it follows no convention — and that with the Hatteso takes this vision to its most extreme limits. A Riserva born from the same radical philosophy as its younger siblings, but with longer appassimento, even more extended ageing and a concentration that defies categorisation.

The name "Hatteso" recalls ancient linguistic roots of the Veronese territory — a mysterious name for an equally mysterious wine, one that reveals itself slowly and never gives itself up completely on the first opening. Like the Heletto with the Oseleta and the Hurlo with its Saccola, Pontedarola and Segreta, the Hatteso is born from a blend of extremely rare indigenous Veronese varieties — Oseleta above all, combined with other ancient local varieties that Garbole tends and cultivates as a genetic heritage not to be lost.

The production amounts to 5,000 bottles per year — available through an extremely limited number of selected retailers worldwide. The grapes are dried for 4 full months in the fruttaio — significantly exceeding the 90-day standard — concentrating sugars, polyphenols and aromas to an extreme level. Then comes the number that stops every conversation: 108 months in new French oak barriques. Nine full years of ageing in new wood — the same extraordinary commitment that defines the Hurlo, here applied to an Amarone Riserva DOCG of even greater structural depth. This is followed by 6 months of bottle ageing before release. The 2015 vintage reached the market after over a decade of total ageing — a timeline that places Garbole in a category entirely its own.

The DOCG Riserva designation requires a minimum of 4 years between wood and bottle. Garbole gives it more than nine. The difference between compliance and obsession.

On the nose it is overwhelming and unrepeatable: dense wild dark fruit preserve, pine resin, aged oriental tobacco, fine aged leather, exotic spice — long pepper, star anise, cardamom — bitter dark chocolate, damp forest floor and an almost metallic ferrous minerality recalling the rocks of the Negrar hills where Garbole has its roots. On the palate it is dense and enveloping — massive tannins that after years of ageing have transformed into an almost tactile texture, a deeply glyceric sweetness, a fresh acidity that miraculously survives the concentration and a finish that evolves for minutes in successive waves of growing complexity. A meditation wine in the most absolute sense — open at least 4 hours ahead, taste in silence, do not share with anyone who cannot wait.