Region: Veneto
Appellation: Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
Producer: Masi
Alcohol:15%
Grape Varieties:70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Molinara
Closure: Cork

Producer: Though run by the Boscaini family for six generations, it is really in the last fifty years that Masi has established itself as one of the Veneto's most innovative wine producers. In the late 1950s, they identified certain historic vineyard plots which are vinified as Amarone and bottled separately to this day. In 1964, they launched the now-legendary Campofiorin, which revived the technique of a second fermentation with semi-dried grapes. Masi have also rescued the ancient Oseleta variety from extinction, and continue to use it in two of their celebrated "Supervenetian" wines.

Vineyard:Masi's hillside vineyards are on west and south-west facing slopes in Valpolicella Classico. The vines face Lake Garda and benefit from the reflection of heat and light, and its tempering effect on the climate. The soil is red limestone and marl.

Winery: concentrating the sugars and losing 35% of their weight in the process. After soft pressing and partial destemming, fermentation began in a mixture of Slavonian oak and stainless steel tanks. After forty-five days, the wine was transferred to large barrels for a further thirty-five days' fermentation, followed by the malolactic. It was then aged for twenty-four months in oak: 80% large Slavonian barrels, 20% in small Allier and Slavonian casks.

Taste:Bright and intense on the nose with aromas of preserved cherries and dried plums together with hints of fruits of the forest and cinnamon. Good weight from the alcohol and structured on the palate, opening out to attractive aromas of cherries and vanilla. Long, velvety finish.