May 20 2009
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Zenato 2004
What a stunning wine! To make Amarone the grapes are left to dry for several months to concentrate the grape juice and eliminate the moisture before pressing. The result is a huge, powerful wine, high in alcohol with wonderfully concentrated depth of flavour. It comes from the Veneto region of North East Italy and is the flagship wine of the area.
So what’s it like?
Absolutely gorgeous! Big, warm and rounded, very smooth, with intense flavours and incredible length. Zenato are one of the best producers in all Italy, which is pretty good when you consider there are over 1 million wine producers there! You can buy cheaper Amarones from co-operatives or ‘own label’ supermarket plonk labelled as Amarone – whose heritage is sometimes doubtful! But don’t be fooled, like all things there’s good and bad examples at all price levels and this Zenato Amarone is top of the tree. A BMW Alpina and a Fiat 500 are both cars but there’s a world of difference between them! It’s the same with wine. Here you’ve got the BMW version!
How much? And where from?
Around £35 per bottle. Again fairly widely available from quality independent retailers although most have now moved onto the 2005 vintage which is equally good. The best deal around at the moment for Amarone della Valpolicella Zenato 2004 is goodwineonline.co.uk at £30.76 but they only have a handful of this vintage left so buy now!
Regularly drink this as one of our favourite bottles – have occassionally been tempted by supermarket versions which are the same in name only. When you consider the velvet quality of this wine its great value so dont be tempted away!