Red Grape · Veneto
Corvina is Verona's great shape-shifter: one sour-cherry grape that becomes light, chillable Valpolicella, richer Ripasso, powerful high-alcohol Amarone, or sweet Recioto, all decided by how long the bunches are dried.
Corvina is the principal red grape of Verona's wine country, forming the backbone of Valpolicella DOC, Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, and Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG. Thick-skinned and remarkably versatile, it yields everything from light, cherry-bright everyday reds to the concentrated, age-worthy wines of Amarone, where its grapes undergo months of careful drying before fermentation.
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Before you buy
The anchor fact: These are not four grapes. Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto are one Corvina blend from the same Verona hills, told apart entirely by the appassimento drying: how long the bunches are dried, and what is done with the skins.
Taste · Where it sits
Forget scores out of five. Here’s Corvina described against grapes you already know.
This is the widest body range in Italian wine: featherweight, chillable Valpolicella at one end and dense 16 percent Amarone at the other, from the very same grapes.
Never the fierce, gum-drying tannin of young Nebbiolo. Corvina's grip is softer and rounder, and in Amarone the appassimento drying coats it in sweet, raisined fruit.
A tart sour-cherry acidity is Corvina's signature, keeping even a powerful Amarone lively rather than jammy, closer in freshness to Sangiovese than to a warm southern red.
Valpolicella, Ripasso and Amarone all ferment bone dry despite their raisined scent. Only Recioto, where fermentation is halted, keeps the grape sugars for a genuinely sweet wine.
Key flavours
The map
Corvina is medium-bodied, moderate grip, mapped against other red grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and grip resemble Corvina.
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Serving guide
Serve at
12-15°C
The window is wide on purpose: chill a light Valpolicella toward the cool end, but serve a big Amarone warmer so its 15 percent alcohol reads as richness, not heat.
Decant
30 minutes
Half an hour in a decanter lets a young Ripasso or Amarone shed its spirituous, raisined top note and open into fruit.
Glass
Large Balloon Glass
A large balloon bowl gives a dense Amarone room to breathe and gathers its dried-cherry and chocolate perfume.
Drink within
3-5 days
The concentration and alcohol of a Ripasso or Amarone keep an opened bottle drinking well for several days; a delicate Valpolicella is best finished sooner.
Cellar
Up to 10 years
Fresh Valpolicella is for drinking young, but a serious Amarone will rest and deepen into leather and dried fig for a decade or more.
On the table
Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.
The Verona home dish
Risotto all'Amarone is a Valpolicella classic: the wine's sweet dried-cherry fruit softens the bitter edge of Treviso radicchio while its acidity cuts the butter and cheese.
For a big Amarone
A high-alcohol, raisined Amarone has the weight to meet slow-braised venison, echoing the dish's dark, gamey richness with its own dried-fruit depth.
Ripasso's sweet spot
A medium-bodied Valpolicella Ripasso flatters lean roast pheasant: enough sour-cherry freshness to lift the bird, enough baby-Amarone body to match the roasting.
Pour a sweet Recioto
This is Recioto della Valpolicella's moment: the sweet dried-grape wine mirrors the pudding's raisins and spice, one appassimento echoing another.
Browse every pairing
Buy it · three to start with
A curated trio across the price range, then every Corvina on sale in the UK right now.
Entry · everyday
2 retailers
Valpolicella
2 retailers
£11.80
£15.12
Why this one: Speri is a benchmark grower, and this straight Classico shows Corvina undried: pale, light and full of fresh sour cherry, good even lightly chilled.
The sweet spot
2 retailers
Valpolicella Ripasso
2 retailers
£16.85
£21.30
Why this one: The same estate, one rung up: this Valpolicella is re-fermented on the leftover Amarone skins (ripasso), gaining the plush, spiced body that earns it the baby-Amarone tag.
Special occasion
4 retailers
Amarone della Valpolicella
4 retailers
£127.90
Why this one: Bertani is one of Amarone's historic houses. Here Corvina is dried for months, then fermented bone dry, for the full raisined, high-alcohol statement wine.
12 of 67 bottles
5 retailers
Verona/Veronese
5 retailers
£19.60
4 retailers
Valpolicella Ripasso
4 retailers
£18.10
£25.86
4 retailers
Amarone della Valpolicella
4 retailers
£46.00
4 retailers
Amarone della Valpolicella
4 retailers
£127.90
3 retailers
Valpolicella
3 retailers
£11.25
3 retailers
Valpolicella
3 retailers
£16.90
3 retailers
Amarone della Valpolicella
3 retailers
£27.46
3 retailers
Amarone della Valpolicella
3 retailers
£23.12
£27.56
3 retailers
Recioto della Valpolicella
3 retailers
£29.99
3 retailers
Veneto
3 retailers
£79.24
2 retailers
Trevenezie
2 retailers
£11.41
2 retailers
Bardolino
2 retailers
£12.61
Denominations
The appellations where Corvina plays a starring role.
Where it grows
Italy's largest wine region by volume, where Prosecco hills, Valpolicella ridges, and Soave's volcanic plain shape three different Italian classics.
The terroir
Corvina is a Verona grape, almost always blended with Rondinella and Corvinone across the hills north and west of the city. The same variety runs from lake-light reds to loft-dried blockbusters depending on where it grows and how it is handled.
Valpolicella Classica
The original hillside amphitheatre north of Verona: Negrar, Fumane, Marano and Sant'Ambrogio.
Corvina's heartland, where the calcareous hills give everything from fresh Valpolicella to the greatest Amarone.
Bardolino
The morainic hills on the eastern shore of Lake Garda, just west of Valpolicella.
The same Corvina blend at its lightest and palest, often chilled, and the source of the pink Chiaretto.
Amarone della Valpolicella
Not a vineyard but the fruttai, the airy drying lofts where the bunches rest for three to four winter months.
Where hillside Corvina loses roughly a third of its weight in water and concentrates into a 15 to 16 percent powerhouse.
Editorial
Corvina Veronese, often shortened to Corvina, is the most important red grape in the province of Verona and the defining variety of Valpolicella's wine system. DNA studies have not identified a clear parent variety, though researchers at the Istituto di Genomica Applicata in Udine have confirmed it is genetically distinct from Corvinone (sometimes labelled Corvina Grossa), a variety that once grew alongside it and is now separately classified.
Amarone begins as a drying process, not a riper vineyard. Corvina bunches rest on racks in airy lofts for three to four winter months, shedding roughly a third of their weight in water. That evaporation, not extra sun, is what concentrates the grapes into a 15 to 16 percent wine.
Valpolicella's appassimento traditionNearly all of the world's 6,200 hectares of Corvina grow within Veneto's Verona province, across the hillside vineyards that stretch from Lake Garda east to the Val d'Illasi. The grape's thick skins give it a natural resistance to botrytis, a trait that makes it ideally suited to the appassimento method central to Amarone and Recioto production. After harvest, whole bunches are laid on bamboo racks in well-ventilated fruttai, where they lose up to 40 percent of their weight over 100 to 120 days. This concentration transforms the grape's naturally high acidity and moderate tannins into the powerful, glycerine-rich structure Amarone is known for.
From fresh grapes, Corvina produces light-bodied, cherry-scented reds with low tannins and bright acidity, the hallmark of entry-level Valpolicella. The Ripasso technique adds complexity by re-fermenting Valpolicella on the spent skins of Amarone, producing wines of medium weight with dried-fruit spice. Corvina is almost always blended with Rondinella and, in traditional uvaggi, Molinara, though single-varietal bottlings from producers like Allegrini (La Poja) have demonstrated the grape's capacity for stand-alone excellence.
Key producers shaping Corvina's modern identity include Bertani, Masi, Allegrini, Tedeschi, and Dal Forno Romano.
Good to know
Fresh Corvina produces light-bodied reds with tart cherry, cinnamon, and green almond flavours. When dried for Amarone, the same grape develops chocolate, leather, and dried-fruit spice with high tannins and alcohol around 15 to 16%.
Though historically confused (Corvinone was once called Corvina Grossa), they are genetically distinct varieties. Corvina is smaller-berried with higher acidity; Corvinone has larger berries and contributes body and colour to Valpolicella blends.
Yes. Corvina Veronese is the formal ampelographic name for the grape commonly known as Corvina. Both refer to the same variety registered in Veneto's official vineyard census.
Lighter Valpolicella pairs with pizza, antipasti, and cured meats. Ripasso suits braised dishes and aged cheeses. Amarone's intensity matches grilled red meats, slow-cooked lamb, and roasted porcini mushrooms.
Corvina's thick skins resist rot during the 100 to 120 day drying process (appassimento), allowing it to concentrate sugars and phenolics without spoilage. This makes it the ideal base grape for Amarone's powerful structure.
The traditional Valpolicella blend includes Rondinella and Molinara alongside Corvina. Modern regulations also allow Corvinone up to 50%, and some producers use small amounts of Oseleta for colour and tannin.
Explore by style
Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.
Keep exploring
777 wines
42 denominations
