Amarone della Valpolicella Valpantena, Bertani 2022 75cl
This is the Amarone to open when you want the drama without the decade-long wait. Bertani source the fruit from the Valpantena valley and age it in smaller barriques rather than the vast Slavonian casks reserved for their Classico, which gives a rounder, readier style you can enjoy tonight.
Valpantena sits just east of the Classica zone, a warm amphitheatre of a valley that ripens Corvina and Rondinella generously. The grapes are still dried in the appassimento tradition, shrivelling on racks to concentrate sugar and flavour before fermentation — that's what pushes an Amarone past 15% and gives it that velvety weight. Bertani have been shaping this style longer than almost anyone.
Expect ripe cherry and blackberry on the nose, threaded with cinnamon and black pepper, and the vanilla and chocolate the barriques leave behind. The palate arrives soft and creamy, then builds power and grip through the middle, with firm savoury tannins holding it together into a long, warming close. It's plush without tipping into jammy.
At £45.99 this is genuinely good value for a DOCG Amarone from a name this pedigreed — drink it over the next five or six years. It's the kind of bottle that turns a cold Sunday roast into an event.
How to Serve
Serve at 16–18°C in a generous glass. Half an hour in a decanter helps the sweeter fruit and spice open up.
Where to Drink It
The River Cafe for northern Italian cooking done properly. Brat in Shoreditch, where the wood grill loves a rich red. Or Planque in Haggerston for a more relaxed evening.
Food Pairings
Slow-braised short rib or a mushroom risotto finished with plenty of Parmesan. Rich, savoury, a little sweet — that's the target.
