Ca' La Bionda Vigneti di Ravazzol Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Italy 2018

Ca' La Bionda has farmed the hills of Marano di Valpolicella since Pietro Castellani founded the estate in 1902, and the fourth generation now works its vineyards organically in the heart of the Valpolicella Classico zone. This Amarone comes from the single Ravazzòl hillside, a blend of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella off old vines planted on calcareous, stony soils that lend an uncommon freshness to a wine this powerful. The grapes are picked and laid to dry on racks from harvest until midwinter, shedding close to forty percent of their weight and concentrating into the raisined intensity that defines the style, then fermented dry and aged some three and a half years in large oak casks. Deep and brooding, it offers dried plum and candied fruit lifted by tamarind and sweet spice, the palate full and warming yet held in line by that mineral, savory backbone and a long finish. A traditional, terroir-driven Amarone with the structure to age.