Amarone della Valpolicella Fieramonte Riserva 2015 75cl

The Allegrini 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Fieramonte is skewed tight and buttoned up in terms of its intensity and its consistency. This balance is quite an achievement, and of course, we have the fabulous 2016 vintage to celebrate here. A year with classic weather patterns and no major challenges, the wine offers black cherry, plum, spice, leather and cured tobacco. The results are modern and contemporary with smooth tannins and a generous, full-weight finish. I love the seamless quality of this cellar-worthy wine. The alcohol is high at 16.5%, and only 5,000 bottles were made (hitting the market in fall 2023).

A cooler year in a recent context. This cuvee (single vineyard) was made from 1965 to 1985, before the vineyard was infected with esca. The vineyard was then rejuvenated and the Fieramonte was revived from 2011. A rich, avuncular, throaty wine after four-years in 225L barriques. The grapes are dried for 130-140 days which is very long, even in the context of the region. Loads of residual sugar at the initial, spontaneous fermentation, before inoculation drags it to a palate-staining dryness. A big wine loaded with extract, dark fruits, menthol and anise. Very impressive. Drink or hold.

Plush and opulent, with a creamy chocolate edge to the concentrated minty blackberries, dark walnuts, mussels and pine cones. Rich, broad and full-bodied with lots of oak now, but still very fresh and tangy. Lots of fine-grained tannins tuck up the dark fruit and the sweet spices into a lengthy finish. Needs some time for the oak to settle more. Drink from 2024.

A dark, rich red, with flashes of dark chocolate and tarry smoke adding fine detail to the core of cherry compote and soft fig flavors. Shows sculpted tannins that are firm and dense, wrapped in a plushly creamy texture that carries appealing accents of balsamico herbs, sandalwood and singed orange peel through the long finish. Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and Oseleta. Drink now through 2035. 1,000 cases made, 50 cases imported.