Pietro dal Cero Amarone della Valpolicella 2018 (Ca dei Frati)

Drink now or cellar for up to 17 years. Decant 2 hours before serving. The first mention of the Ca Dei Frati estate dates right back to 1782, although it wasn’t until 1939 that the modern winery started to take shape. Felice Dal Cero recognised the excellent winemaking potential of Lugana on the shores of Lake Garda and set about planting vineyards to make his dream a reality. Today the winery is run by Felice’s three grandchildren and is widely considered to be Lugana’s finest winery with around 200 hectares of vines. This magnificent Amarone is named after Pietro, Felice’s son, who played a pivotal role in the story of the estate and the wider region, helping Lugana to receive official DOC status as an appellation in 1967. His namesake wine is crafted with top quality fruit from the estate’s Luxinum vineyard which sits below Monti Lessini. Once in the winery the grapes are dried according to tradition for 4 months to intensify and concentrate the flavours and sugars. They are then fermented and the young wine aged in oak barrels for 24 months followed by 12 months in steel tanks. The wine then undergoes another 24 months of ageing in the bottle before release. This lengthy maturation process crafts a remarkably polished and graceful Amarone which is bursting with complex layers of dried fruits, ripe crushed berries and cherries, and cigar box spice and vanilla from the oak ageing. It is recommended to decant the wine a couple of hours before serving to reveal the full beauty of this complex and powerful Amarone.