These delicious Ripassa wines are made by a special process. At harvest time the grapes are picked and portion of the grapes are set aside to dry, to make ‘Amarone’. The undried traditional Valpolicella grapes are crushed and vinified right away. In a separate process the dried grapes are crushed and vinified to make Amarone. The Valpolicella Superiore Ripassa wine is made passing Valpolicella through Amarone pomace, the remains of dried grapes that were used to make Amarone. This process results in a wine that has a deep red colour, luscious complex berry aroma and velvety texture, that is, in my opinion better than some Amarones. This secondary process also leads to a slight increase in alcohol content. The first ‘Ripasso’ wine was made in 1964 by the Masi Winery. After this other wineries began to develop their own interpretations of the process. Zenato use the term ‘Ripassa’.

This wine offers fantastic value, available at around £15 per bottle.

Buy
You can get bottles of Valpolicella Superiore Ripassa Zenato 2005 from Good Wine Online.

Stats
Alcohol content: 13.5% abv
Sulphite content: low

Awards and Scores
Zenato Valpoicella Superiore Ripassa DOC 2005: International wine & Spirit Competition: Silver Best in Class
Due Biccheri 2001
Wine spectator: 89 points1999, 88 points 2000/1

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