In March 2022, Bertani opened the archive of its vineyard in Valpantena for a momentous tasting: 43 vintages of Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, tasted vertically, for a novel overview of the producer’s flagship wine, its identification and evolution.
The tasting showcased the event of the balanced, poised fashion that has made Bertani’s Amarone so distinct and extremely praised by specialists and shoppers alike. It strikes an ideal steadiness between the extra conventional expressions – concentrated and muscular, opulent and uncompromising – and the extra fashionable approaches, targeted on freshness and drinkability. Whereas the previous introduced Amarone to the world stage, in addition they alienated youthful generations of drinkers and questioned the willingness of consumers to cellar them for lengthy sufficient. The latter, then again, someway drifted too near a regular pink wine, not conveying Amarone’s sturdy character. ‘I consider that Amarone Bertani has struck a steadiness between these two variations. It’s a wine that’s bigger than life. However not excessively so,’ mentioned Ernesto Barbero, Cellar Grasp at Bertani from 1959 to 1989.
The start of an icon
Casa Vinicola Bertani was based in 1857 by brothers Giovan Battista and Gaetano Bertani, in Quinto di Valpantena, 10 kilometres north of Verona. Combining main information of viticulture and winemaking with enterprise savvy, the brothers shortly constructed one of many area’s most esteemed and recognisable manufacturers in Italy and overseas. With a pioneering spirit that launched such improvements as single-vineyard wines and property bottling, Bertani set a brand new high quality benchmark for Valpolicella. By the top of the nineteenth century the home’s wines have been already offered and liked throughout Europe, in addition to in the USA.
The story of what has change into Bertani’s most iconic wine began with the acquisition, within the early twentieth century, of Tenuta Novare, an property in Valpolicella’s Negrar Valley with 65 hectares beneath vine. The seek for the last word expression of intense and age-worthy Valpolicella started on this famed terroir, culminating with the discharge, in 1958, of the primary classic of Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Bertani.
Six a long time on, the grapes for the home’s Amarone are nonetheless sourced solely from Tenuta Novare, the place they’re additionally dried, defining a novel viticultural lineage that has formed the wine’s character by the years. Now within the palms of Angelini Wines and with Andrea Leonardi on the helm of the winemaking workforce, various modifications have been launched with the goal of additional highlighting the identification of the terroir and the standard of the grapes it yields. The introduction of natural practices, the promotion of biodiversity and the granular analysis on which internet sites are greatest suited to every wine are examples of the relentless dedication to high quality that has change into Bertani’s trademark.
A timeline of character
The vertical tasting at Bertani’s cellars served as an analytical and historic overview of the evolution and refinement of the home’s Amarone. Andrea Lonardi was joined by Eleonora Guerini, wine author and head of promoting at Bertani, and Nick Jackson MW. Collectively they tasted flights of wines from every successive decade, with the goal of figuring out patterns of growth, classic expressiveness and markers of a elementary character.
One of many overarching themes was freshness. Even after prolonged time in oak and in bottle, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Bertani stays an elementally recent wine, because of average to excessive ranges of acidity, and low ranges of pH. In tandem, these guarantee brightness, vibrancy and readability of expression. One other recurring commentary was the masterful integration of alcohol and tannins, supported by a constant richness of fruit, in flip offset by savoury nuances. The wines thus confirmed an total steadiness and alluring poise, making them, above
all, wines of enjoyment. Attempting to seize the important thing parts of the wine’s fashion, Nick Jackson MW developed an eye-opening classic classification. Fairly than recording flavour descriptors, he targeted on measurement, power and total fashion in an try and convey the advanced and exquisite sensory expertise supplied by every of the glasses tasted. He selected to contemplate the wines beneath 4 broad classes which, he believes, replicate their elemental character: exuberance, gentleness, concord and finesse. These can certainly sum up the nice character of Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Bertani – whereas the vintages present various personalities, every the product of the circumstances of a specific 12 months and the winemaking of the period, there’s an underlying identification that’s unmistakably Amarone and unmistakably Bertani. Could this historic journey proceed for a lot of vintages to come back.
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