skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Price: $12.99 @ Trader Joe's
Recommended by: the price!
Tasting notes: This wine was a wonderful surprise. Amarones usually run over $30, but we found this one at TJ's for under $15. We expected little but were amazed to find so much flavor in this bottle. It has a rich, long taste dominated by raisins, dates, and cherries. The alcohol content is high but not overpowering. We will be getting another bottle of this soon!
Rating: 8/10
(addendum: Quaffability had the best line about this wine: "Despite its complexity, this is definitely a good beginners wine, a good wine for white drinkers looking to go red, and a great seduction wine, though you run the risk of draining the bottle, and maybe another, and going to sleep before anything interesting happens.")
Last night we attended an amarone tasting at Les Zygomates, a French restaurant/wine bar in Boston. We tasted four different amarones, along with delicious duck, steak, and veal appetizers and a very impressive wild mushroom and cheese bruschetta. Amarone is a very full-bodied, high-alcohol, Italian wine, in which the grapes go through a drying process for five months, creating a sweet raisin, before they are pressed.
2001 Santi, Amarone della Valpolicella
This wine was the lightest of the amarones we tried. It wasn't as smooth, bu
t especially when paired with the food it was still very enjoyable. Bright, fruity tastes of cherry and plum and spices (cinnamon and cloves), with a toasted almond finish.
(Retail: ~$25-40)
1998 Tomassi, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
This was our favorite wine of the evening. Bursts of fruit flavor and some chocolate notes, and it was the smoothest of the four.
This amarone was also a few years older, so the tannens weren't as prevalent. As our sommalier explained, 1998 was a great year from amarone, especially in the Classico region.
(Retail: ~$45-55)
2000 Luigi Righetti, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
This amarone was not as fruity as the Tomassi and not as enjoyable. It was a b
it more chocolatey and smelled like chicory, and it went well with the food pairing, but overall it did not blow us away like the Tomassi.
(Retail: ~$25)
2000 Tenute Galtarossa, Amarone della Valpolicella
This was our second favorite. It had a nice complexity with a pronounced tobacco flavor. It was very lovely, but in a different way than our first choice, the Tomassi. It might be hard to find. (Retail: ~$35-40)
