Amarone, Tenuta Musella

£44.00

In stock

10% off when you buy 12 or more wines

Musella’s Amarone walks a distinctive line between, between light and dark, delicacy and power, treble and bass. Bright berry notes balance intense raisin flavours with earthy, herbal hints and a little cedar woodiness in a truly unique style.

Amarone – the dark, intense wine of North Eastern Italy – is made from exactly the same grapes (principally Corvina and Corvinone, with a little Rondinella and a couple of others) as Valpolicella, the light, easy-going wine of North Eastern Italy. The thing that makes the difference is drying…

The grapes for each wine are picked at peak ripeness, but the Valpoicella grapes go straight into the vats, the Amarone grapes, on the other hand, are laid out to dry. Traditionally, this was done on straw pallets for 6 weeks or so in the sun. But nowadays, the grapes are dried longer and slower in more climatically controllable drying rooms. In the case of Musella’s Amarone the grapes are harvested in September and then dried throughout the winter. In February, having lost 50% of their weight, they are shrivelled almost to raisins. Their juice is dark and concentrated and so, of course, is the wine. After gentle pressing – firm pressing would just force out bitter stem and seed flavours – and fermentation, the wine is then aged for a year in oak barrels and vats to add further depth and woody accents.

Tenuta Musella follows biodynamic farming methodology, following the teachings of Rudolph Steiner to farm in a way that harmonises with the ecology and rhythms of the surrounding environment in way that exceed even organic farming.