2013 Pietro Clementi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG

Clementi’s remarkably vibrant, layered Amarone comes from bunches picked in mid-September and dried in shallow wooden crates in a naturally ventilated room of the winery until they lose 40 to 50% of their original water weight—which takes until the following January or February. At that point, the shriveled grapes are pressed and fermented via naturally occurring yeasts (a rarity for Amarone, as its high sugar levels have difficulty fermenting all the way through without outside assistance), and the wine spends five years in 30-hectoliter casks followed by three years in bottle before reaching the market. Clementi’s is an Amarone of tension and freshness, tasting not only of dried red fruits and chocolate, but of salt and spice. Powerful without being hefty, and fully, mouthwateringly dry, it is built for the long haul, and will continue to develop complexity and depth over three decades or more of bottle aging.