Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG, Ripasso della Valpolicella DOC!!!
At last, after 20 years of arguing, it is official.
Amarone della Valpolicella and Recioto della Valpolicella receives DOCG-status – the highest quality-rank in the Official Italian wine
classification-system. The promotion will be from the 2008-vintage. Amarone and recioto do belong here among the DOCGs. There has been
argued over the years, that only the best parts of Valpolicella (the hilly parts) should receive the DOCG-status and that the flatter
parts should not be included. But looking back at these 20 years of arguing, it seems now that the producers of Valpolicella simply
takes the step to recognize everything as DOCG. The most important thing is receiving the promotion. Some producers hope that a review
of the DOCG-zone will follow as a step two of this promotion. But how easy is it to take away a promotion to areas where DOCG-status
now is given. My fear is that this “review” will never take place.
The production of amarone and recioto increased from 1,5 million liters in 1997 to 10 million liters in 2007. More than one third of the
grapes in Valpolicella are now dried to make these wines. That is a very large amount considering that amarone and recioto should
represent the top quality-level in the area (and think of what this does to the quality of the basic Valpolicella). Why is it like
that? The explanation is simple. Money. There is no place in Italy nowadays where you can make more money on wine than on amarone. It
is big business and several people are in for the money and simply don’t care about the quality of the product they make. Looking at
the amount of amarone/recioto produced today, it is very sad that a promotion to DOCG did not lead to higher demands of quality for the
product that proudly should bear the name amarone della valpolicella or recioto della valpolicella. With the promotion to DOCG my fear
is that we will see even more low quality products marketed as amarone. Which is exactly the opposite of what such a promotion should
lead to.
There is also another Denominazione official now in Valpolicella – The Ripasso della Valpolicella DOC. This ends another long battle of
disagreement in the area. The name of this old production-method was registrated by Masi as a trademark for their Campofiorin and other
producers were not allowed to use the term on their labels. It has now been integrated into the DOC-system with it’s own appellation.
Arnt Egil Nordlien
Dec-09