Wine route
Valpolicella Classico Loop
Half day · 5 stops
Open the driveVeneto · DOCG
Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Veneto's Appassimento Red Wine
Amarone della Valpolicella is Veneto's flagship DOCG red, made from dried Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes. The appassimento takes 100 to 120 days in fruttai lofts. The berries lose nearly half their weight, which concentrates sugar and polyphenols. The wine that follows is dry and full-bodied, and it typically tops 15 percent alcohol.
155
Wines live now
£19-£10,000
Price range today
24
UK retailers
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One word on the front changes the ageing, the strength and the price.
On the label
Amarone della Valpolicella
the dried-grape giant
2 years from 1 January after harvest
14% minimum alcohol
Corvina dried until December before pressing: black cherry, fig and spice at a strength no fresh grape gives.
In stock from £20.20 See the 63 bottles ↓On the label
Amarone Classico
the original five valleys
Five communes Fumane, Marano, Negrar, Sant'Ambrogio, San Pietro
Same rules as the wider zone, older postcode
The historic heartland north-west of Verona, where the drying lofts and the cherry-tree hills started it all.
In stock from £19.12 See the 47 bottles ↓On the label
Amarone Riserva
four years before release
4 years from 1 November of the harvest
32 g/l minimum dry extract, the densest tier
The longest-held wine of the Veneto: leather, dried plum and balsam notes take over from fruit.
In stock from £25.50 See the 26 bottles ↓The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
Wine route
Strada del Vino Soave
1 day · 7 stops
Open the drive
Estate 1
Giuseppe Quintarelli
Visit →Negrar · Classico
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 2
Allegrini
Visit →Fumane · Classico
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 3
Cantina Valpolicella Negrar
Visit →Negrar di Valpolicella
Book online
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 4
Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine
Visit →Verona
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 5
Azienda Agricola Brunelli Luigi
Visit →S. Pietro in Cariano
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 6
Azienda Agricola Masi
Visit →Gargagnago · Classico
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 7
Dal Forno Romano
Visit →Illasi · The eastern valley
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 8
Tedeschi
Visit →San Pietro in Cariano · Classico
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Estate 9
Azienda Agricola Massaro
Visit →Negrar di Valpolicella
Tastings available
Denomination
Grapes Used
Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG zone
Estates you can visit Wine routes in the zoneOutside the zone
The same 19 communes as Valpolicella DOC, on the hills north of Verona: from the Classico valleys of Fumane, Marano and Negrar in the west, across the single-valley Valpantena, to the eastern ridges of Illasi and Tregnago. What changes for Amarone is not the map but the building: every zone needs its drying rooms, where whole bunches lose a third of their weight between harvest and the December pressing.
Inside the zone
19
Communes
1 Dec
Earliest pressing
40%
Max yield of wine from grapes
12 t/ha
Maximum yield
Click or tap a pin for its estate. The numbered pins match the estate cards below.
Towns worth knowing
Negrar
Fumane
Marano
Sant'Ambrogio
San Pietro in Cariano
The five Classico communes; Grezzana holds the Valpantena valley, and Verona itself sits inside the DOCG's map.
In the glass
What it tastes like
Black cherry
Prune
Cocoa
Leather
Liquorice
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Corvina and/or CorvinoneThe lead pair; Corvinone may stand in for Corvina45 to 95%RondinellaColour and resilience in the drying loft5 to 30%Other Verona redsNon-aromatic local varieties, jointly cappedup to 25%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
The grapes wait until 1 December drying on racks before pressing; only a ministry derogation can move the date.
Only 40% of the fruit becomes wine the drying loss is written into the rulebook as a maximum yield of wine from grapes.
Two years of ageing, four for Riserva the Riserva clock starts earlier, on 1 November of the harvest itself.
Sweetness is capped on a sliding scale 9 g/l at 14% alcohol: Amarone must finish essentially dry, unlike its Recioto sibling.
No barrel is prescribed the law fixes time and strength; botte, barrique or neither is the house's choice.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Amarone della Valpolicella costs in the UK
Every live Amarone della Valpolicella listing, cheapest to dearest
136 wines · 24 retailers
By style, today
Amarone
from £20.20
Riserva
from £25.50
Live prices, compared across 24 UK retailers.
Cellar doors · inside the zone
Estates you can visit
9 working estates with their gates open, numbered to match their pins on the map above.
Only show
No estates match these filters. Clear a filter to see more.
Experiences in the Amarone della Valpolicella zone
Cellar experiences here average around €45. These are the strongest fits for this page.
Tasting & tour
Classic
Cantina Valpolicella Negrar
The guided tour offers a fascinating journey into the heart of the Valpolicella wine-making tradition. The experience begins in the Appassim…
1 h 30 From €25 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Maggiore
Cantina Valpolicella Negrar
The guided tour offers a fascinating journey into the heart of the Valpolicella wine-making tradition. The experience begins in the Appassim…
1 h 30 From €35 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Amarone
Cantina Valpolicella Negrar
The guided tour offers a fascinating journey into the heart of the Valpolicella wine-making tradition. The experience begins in the Appassim…
1 h 30 From €50 pp
Book via
Winalist
Two names the label may add
The mentions
Two geographic mentions may follow Amarone on a label: Classico for the five original communes, Valpantena for the single valley north-east of Verona.
Classico
The heartlandThe original amphitheatre north-west of Verona: Fumane, Marano, Negrar, Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano, the five valleys the name Valpolicella first meant.
Valpantena
The single Pantena valley running north-east from Verona, the only other place name the label may carry.
The years
Amarone della Valpolicella vintages, 2010-2019
2010
Very good (italian-wine-info.com)
2011
Very good
2012
Very good
2013
Good
2014
Poor: cold wet summer across Veneto
2015
Very good
2016
Excellent
2017
Good
2018
Good
2019
Good
Reading the years
2016
Exceptional · 5/5
Excellent
The short version: 2016 towers over the decade; 2011, 2012 and 2015 drink richly now, and 2014 is the year to avoid.
Tap a year for its note.
How Amarone della Valpolicella is made
After the harvest the grapes are laid out on bamboo mats or plastic trays in fruttai lofts. They dry from late September into January, roughly 100 to 120 days. Over that time they lose 35 to 45 percent of their weight. Fermentation then starts in cold winter cellars. Native yeasts work slowly on the concentrated must. DOCG rules require Corvina at 45 to 95 percent. Corvinone may replace up to half of the Corvina share. Rondinella sits at 5 to 30 percent, and complementary varieties may reach 25 percent. Ageing runs at least two years, counted from the January after the harvest. It usually happens in large Slavonian oak casks, in mid-size French casks, or in smaller barrels. Finished wines must reach at least 14 percent alcohol. In practice they often pass 15.
In depth
Amarone takes its name from amaro, the Italian for bitter. The contrast is with Recioto della Valpolicella, the sweet dried-grape wine from the same fruttai tradition. Recioto is the historical parent. The dry style we now call Amarone was labelled in 1936, by cellarmaster Adelino Lucchese. The first commercial bottles did not appear until 1953. Valpolicella earned its own DOC in 1990. Amarone was raised to DOCG on 4 December 2009, alongside Recioto.
The growing zone stretches across the Lessini foothills north of Verona. The Classico zone covers the five original towns: Negrar, Marano, Fumane, Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano. Those hills are widely considered the heartland. The Valpantena zone sits east of Verona and has its own naming convention. Outside both lies the wider Valpolicella production area.
In style, Amarone splits on how much sugar is left and how much oak shows. The traditional benchmarks lean full and thick in the mouth. They often finish with a few grams of sugar left, after long ageing in large Slavonian casks. A younger wave wants drier palates, less extraction and less time in small oak. It is after more freshness, without losing the mark of the dried grapes.
Ripasso della Valpolicella is the sister DOC. It steeps Valpolicella Classico base wine over the drained skins left from Amarone, to pick up body and structure. Ripasso is often sold as the baby Amarone at half the price. Legally, though, the two are separate denominations under different rulebooks.
Amarone drinks best from 8 to 15 years after the vintage. The best Riserva bottlings, with their four-year minimum ageing, hold for decades.
On the table
What to eat with Amarone della Valpolicella
Dried-grape depth wants rich, slow food: game, mature cheese and the bitter edge of radicchio risotto all stand up to it.
Risotto
Radicchio risotto
Risotto al Radicchio, known for its slightly bitter and nutty flavor from the radicchio, can be paired effectively with a red wine that has little or no tannins.
In-depth guide
Amarone della Valpolicella, answered
Dried and intense: black cherry, dried fig, raisin, cocoa, leather and sweet spices. The finish is dry, the alcohol runs hot and the tannins are firm. The dried grapes give the weight and concentration, and the long ageing adds the savoury edges.
Fresh Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes dry on mats in fruttai lofts for 100 to 120 days. They lose 35 to 45 percent of their weight. The concentrated must then ferments slowly in cold winter cellars. It ages at least two years, usually in oak.
Rich, slow-cooked meat. Brasato al Amarone is the braise named after the wine. Ossobuco and wild boar ragu work too, as do aged hard cheeses such as Monte Veronese stravecchio or Parmigiano Reggiano 24 mesi. The weight of the wine needs protein and umami to match.
Valpolicella is a light, fresh red from the same grapes, with no drying. Amarone uses fully dried grapes, long ageing and 14-plus percent alcohol. Ripasso takes Valpolicella base wine and ferments it again over Amarone skins. It sits in between the two on body and on price.
It is drinkable from 5 years after the vintage, and at its peak between 8 and 15 years. The best Riserva bottlings, with their 4-year minimum ageing, keep for 20 to 30 years in good cellar conditions.
It is a smaller named zone inside the denomination. It covers the five original Valpolicella towns north-west of Verona: Negrar, Marano, Fumane, Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano. These hillside vineyards are generally regarded as the quality heartland.
Explore more Veneto
Same region only: the denominations Amarone della Valpolicella drinkers reach for next.
