Prà Morandina Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso

Valpolicellas’ supercharged wine, Amarone, is made by drying the best Valpolicella grapes over the cool months of the winter until they are reduced and concentrated.  The challenge at this point is squeezing the things!  As they are so reduced in size, there’s very little juice left but still all of the pips are there.  Have you ever bitten a grape pip?  Bitter!  So the dried grapes can be only very gently pressed – often in centrifugal presses – to avoid crushing those pips.  That’s partly why Amarone is so expensive. It takes a lot of grapes to make a small amount of wine.

So once you’ve squeezed those grapes, what you’re left with is this lovely, tasty, gooey mess – called the must.  So those clever people in Valpollicella have another trick up their wine stained sleeves: Take the tasty must and rinse it through with good Valpolicella wines made in the same season – called Ripasso – to blend those deep and powerful Amarone characteristics with the fresher vivacity of a good Valpollicella.  

And this one does that in spades!

Earthy notes plus a hint of Christmas in this, with an orange peel tang, cloves and lovely semi-dried figs and prunes. A big rich wine with graphite minerality on a palate of great length and elegance.