2004 Amarone della Valpolicella DOC Costasera

Tasting Notes
Deep ruby red colour with mahogany reflections on the edges. Intense and highly developed nose with hints of ripe fruit and cherry jam. Clean on the palate with a delicious smoothness followed by the familiar hints of warm alcohol and complexity to the structure. Long and delicate finish with touches of cinnamon and vanilla. 

Food matching
Grilled or roasted meats, game, tasty and piquant cheese. Generally considered a wine for meditation, is a great after dinner wine.

Winemaking Notes
70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Molinara.

Amarone is the product of the wine-making method well-know to the Romans as "appassimento" (grape drying). At the end of September or beginning of October, the best grapes are picked and placed on bamboo racks in lofts equipped with NASA (Natural Appassimento Control System). At the end of January the grapes weigh 35% less and have concentrated their sugars. This time only the corvina grapes were naturally infected by noble rot. The processes that follow are: soft pressing; partial de-stalking; 45 days fermentation in large Slavonian oaks  barrels or stainless steel vats at low, natural temperatures; transfer into barrells of 30-40 hl where the alcoholic fermentation continues for 35 days in the presence of selected alcohol resistant yeast; malolactic fermentation.

80% of the wine ages in old Slavonian oak barrels and the remaining 20% in small Allier and Slavonian oak barrels (40%new, 30% second usage, 30% third usage). The wine is then aged for minimum 4 months in bottle.