Valpolicella & Amarone

Romans dried grapes for sweeter wines — the ancestor of Amarone. The technique (appassimento) has survived 2,000 years. These powerful, raisined wines are unlike anything else.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand Where Romans Named This Wine — Pieve di San Giorgio Hilltop History · Free

   A 7th-century church on a hill that has overlooked these vineyards since before Italy existed. Below you: the Recioto della Grola zone, where Corvina grows on the exact slopes Romans called Retico — the favorite wine of Emperor Augustus.

   You're standing at the spiritual center of Valpolicella Classico, where Iron Age rock-carved remains discovered behind the 7th–8th century church prove people have farmed and worshipped here for 3,000 years. Park in Sant'Ambrogio and walk the Coali vineyard trail (40 min, free, marked path) to reach Pieve di San Giorgio di Valpolicella, or drive directly to the church square. Below you, that hillside to the left marked by the dark cypress ridge is La Grola — one of Allegrini's greatest single-vineyard sites, producing Recioto and Amarone on the same limestone-volcanic soil the Roman army physician Dioscorides wrote about in 50 AD as a cure for headaches, intestinal parasites, and infertility. Walk clockwise around the church to find the archaeological area, then stand at the western edge facing the valley: those terraced vineyards with thin limestone walls are the Corvina plots producing the exact grapes that will become Amarone.

   Backup: If driving, the road through Gargagnago toward the Serego Alighieri estate gives equally dramatic vineyard views — the 16th-century villa visible through the vines was bought by Dante Alighieri's son Pietro in 1353. The family has made wine on this land continuously for 670+ years.

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2. 2 Walk the Bamboo Racks Where Pliny's Wine Is Still Made — Masi Fruttaio Wine · Price: moderate

   Masi has been drying grapes in this valley since 1772. Their fruttaio — the grape-drying loft — uses the same bamboo 'arele' racks Pliny described in 77 AD. You can touch them. The grapes smell of raisin and honey and something ancient.

   The 'peagnà' is the ingenious wooden frame that holds the bamboo cane racks — it hasn't changed in 2,000 years. Each 'aréle' holds up to 4kg of Corvina grapes, laid in a single layer so air circulates around every cluster for 90–120 days. Book the guided tour at Masi Wine Experience (Via Monteleone 26, Gargagnago di Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, +39 045 7703622, masi.it) — most dramatic September–January when the drying grapes fill every rack. At harvest, a single grape weighs about 3 grams; by January, it weighs 1.8 grams — the water gone, the sugar, acid, and flavor concentrated into something approaching treacle-sweet intensity. In the tasting, ask specifically for Costasera Amarone and their Campofiorin Ripasso — taste both back to back and ask: 'How many kilograms of grapes per bottle?' The answer — about 3kg fresh weight collapsing to make one 750ml bottle of Amarone — tends to stop people mid-sip.

   Backup: If Masi is booked, Allegrini at Via Giare 9/11, Fumane (+39 045 6832060, allegrini.it) offers fruttaio access through their Villa della Torre Renaissance estate (16th-century complex, booked for tastings). Their La Poja is the only 100% Corvina wine in all of Valpolicella Classico — from a single amphitheatre-shaped hillside that acts as a natural heat trap.

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3. 3 Order the Three-Wine Vertical — Recioto, Ripasso, Amarone in One Sitting Wine · Price: low

   At the Enoteca della Valpolicella in Fumane, you can taste all three expressions of the appassimento technique side by side. Same grapes, same valley, three completely different wines — sweet, medium, dry. The whole 2,000-year story in three glasses.

   Ask for a comparative tasting of all three Valpolicella appassimento wines at Enoteca della Valpolicella (Via Osan 45, 37022 Fumane VR, +39 045 6839146, opens at 12:00 noon). The sequence matters: start with Valpolicella Superiore (the lightest), then Ripasso (the 'repassed' wine — basic Valpolicella refermented over Amarone's spent skins for 10–12 days), then Recioto (the sweet ancestor — fermentation halted before all sugar converts), and finally Amarone (the 'escaped' Recioto, where fermentation ran to dryness, converting all sugar into the 15–17% ABV monster that made Adelino Lucchese exclaim in 1936 'This isn't bitter — this is an Amarone!'). Tell your server you want to understand the appassimento progression — a good flight covering all three wines rarely costs more than €20–30.

   Backup: The Cantina di San Pietro in Cariano (cantinavalpolicellasanpietro.it) is the local cooperative and offers walk-in tastings of the full range. Less intimate but more affordable. Or simply walk into any bar in Fumane or Sant'Ambrogio and ask for 'un bicchiere di Valpolicella Superiore' — you're drinking the local table wine, the foundation of one of wine's greatest pyramids.

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4. 4 Taste Six Decades of Amarone at Bertani's Library — History in a Glass History · Price: high

   Bertani has been making Amarone since the 1950s. Their 'Library Experience' opens a collection of historic vintages covering six decades — the only place in Valpolicella where you can taste what Amarone tasted like in the era when it was still a new idea.

   The 'Library Experience' is the jewel: a tasting through Bertani's vault of historic Amarone vintages, spanning six decades of the DOCG's evolution. Book via bertani.net/experiences at Villa Novare (Località Novare 1, Arbizzano di Negrar, Verona) — the family opened the historic cellars to visitors in May 2024 after major restoration. The cellars were built in the 1850s when brothers Giovan Battista and Gaetano Bertani founded the winery in 1857, with original cement vats from the early 1900s standing alongside French and Slavonian oak barrels. Early Amarone from the 1960s–70s was deliberately aged in large old chestnut casks for years longer than today's regulations require, resulting in wines that are legendary for their longevity — bottles from the 1964 vintage have been opened in good condition.

   Backup: The standard Valpolicella Classica path (cellar tour + 4 wines) is excellent and less expensive. Even this gives access to the architecture — the old cement vats, the mix of oak sizes and species (French, Slavonian, chestnut, acacia, cherry) that represent 160 years of experimentation. If Bertani is fully booked, Allegrini's Villa della Torre at Fumane offers a Renaissance manor tasting experience (+39 045 6832070, villadellatorre.it).

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5. 5 Find the €330 Amarone — Dal Forno Romano's Private Estate Tour Adventure · Price: very high · Optional

   Romano Dal Forno requires 13 vines to produce a single bottle of Amarone. His wine ages six years before release. A private visit costs €330 per person — and is considered by collectors worldwide to be worth every cent.

   Romano Dal Forno founded the estate in 1983 and immediately set about making Amarone with an obsessiveness that defies commercial logic — the wine doesn't reach the market until 6 years after harvest, and at auction, bottles regularly fetch €200–600. Book the private visit via enouting.com (search 'Dal Forno Romano lunch') at Loc. Lodoletta 1, 37031 Illasi (€330/person, minimum 2, maximum 8 people, or contact +39 045 7834923). The Valpolicella grapes dry 6 weeks, the Amarone itself dries 3 months, then 2 years in new French oak, then 4 years in bottle before release. Dal Forno's philosophy: 'You need 7 full vines for one bottle of Valpolicella. For one bottle of Amarone, you need 13.' The private visit includes a sommelier guide, full winery tour with Marco Dal Forno (Romano's son), and specially designed lunch paired with current and mature Dal Forno vintages.

   Backup: Dal Forno wines are available by the glass at the finest wine bars in Verona (try Antica Bottega del Vino, Vicolo Scudo di Francia 3 — one of the great Italian wine bars, open since 1890). If you can't visit the estate, a single glass of Dal Forno Amarone at a restaurant in Verona (budget €40–80 per glass) is still one of the great wine experiences in Italy.

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Insider tips

• Visit a drying loft (fruttaio) during autumn harvest

• Allegrini or Bertani for prestigious visits

• Recioto della Valpolicella is the sweet version

• The wines are powerful — pace yourself