Amarone in particular and Valpolicella wines more broadly has seen a tremendous success in recent decades. Talking about a renaissance is understating it. The powerful, intense amarones and the elegant and stylish Valpolicella wines have joined the ranks of the world’s most famous wines. A new web site, Terroir Amarone, is dedicated to this wine region in northern Italy. We invited the two founders of the site, wine lovers and enthusiasts Elisabetta Tosi and Giampiero Nadali to tell us about their project. Here is their introduction:
A few years ago, I wrote an article about Amarone della Valpolicella for an online wine magazine, in which I described the elaborate winemaking process of this renowned wine. I did not imagine how successful it would be, but indeed it was. Many people sent me emails to thank me, because finally they understood how amarone is made. This surprised me a bit because I was convinced that a so successful wine did not need any further explanation… But, as I discovered, I was wrong.
Therefore, with my friend and business partner Giampiero Nadali, we started to design a web site with the aim of gathering some of the most helpful information about amarone and about its “brothers”: Valpolicella Superiore, Valpolicella Ripasso (or for friends of this wine, simply “ripasso”) and Recioto della Valpolicella. And since most of these wines end up in foreign countries, we decided to write this web site entirely in English.
This work took us a couple of years, because we could do it only in our spare time (that we have very little of). Initially we discussed if we should seek some sponsors, but then we decided that we should not. We wanted to feel free to write what we wanted. We wanted to create an “independent report” from Valpolicella, addressing our contents mainly to the final consumers, the wine lovers, but also to the professionals (importers, distributors, retailers…) all over the world.
Who is who
Now, perhaps you are wondering who we are, doing all this…
Well, I, Elisabetta, am a wine journalist and wine blogger, and my friend, Giampiero, is a marketer and wine blogger. We both live in Valpolicella and are consultants to wineries helping them to use “new media”.
Our expertise of the region and its wines comes from our daily work with wine producers, wine makers, and agronomists. From every day tasting bottles of amarone, ripasso, valpolicella or recioto. Because you should know that there are more wines and wine producers than you can imagine here!
So, here you have one of the goals of Terroir Amarone, as Giampiero says: “Our project stems from the fact that there is a huge gap of information about Valpolicella at an international level. The only information that one can find comes from a few big brands or from the official press releases of the Consortium (ed.: growers’ promotional organisation). But there is no independent voice in English. There is no information hub that allows access to the wines of many small, artisanal or unknown wineries. We think that Valpolicella is complex, just like Burgundy, but nobody is explaining it to the wine lovers. What is missing is a comprehensive view of the area and of its crus. This is why we are very keen share the maps and to explain all the differences that there are in this wine region.”
“That’s why we named our web site ‘Terroir Amarone’. It is also a challenge to the producers who sometimes do not add value to the terroir of their wines. And it’s also a challenge for the customers (professionals and consumers) to deepen their knowledge and to discover the features that are different from one wine to another…”
What we want to achieve with this web site is to be a landmark, an independent, authoritative and up to date source of information. A view on Valpolicella that is helpful for all those people, consumers, yes, but also wine professionals, who are seeking an alternative gateway to this region and want to explore it from a different point of view. Of course, you have to consider that it is still a work in progress, and that not all the info that we want to have there on the site. However, we are open to your curiosity and your needs: If you want to know something specific or has a query about something, let us know!
We love to share our passion for this region and its wines.
Elisabetta Tosi
Here is the site, Terroir Amarone, with everything on amarone and Valpolicella.
Footnote:
Valpolicella is the name of a wine region located close to the city of Verona in the north-east of Italy, at about 200 km from Venice. Despite its name, it is not one valley (Valpolicella), but rather nine. The historical area of wine production is called “Valpolicella Classica”. It includes the valleys of Negrar, San Pietro in Cariano, Fumane, Marano and Sant’Ambrogio. The rest of the region lies to the east of the city, and includes the valleys of Valpantena, Mezzane, Illasi, Cazzano. Wine growing exists here since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. The most important grapes are the indigenous varieties: corvina, rondinella, molinara and corvinone. They can be processed fresh or, more frequently, dried or partially dried in order to make amarone, ripasso and Recioto della Valpolicella.
Note: This article was written by Elisabetta Tosi, the co-founder of Terroir Amarone.
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If you want to go one step further then you should go there. Visiting Valpolicella and tasting a range of amarone wines (and others) is best done on a wine tour to Veneto / Valpolicella / amarone with BKWine.
Travel to the world’s wine regions with the wine experts and the specialist on wine tours and wine travel!
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