Exploring Valpolicella's diverse red wine styles
– from light to full-bodied reds
I facilitated a wine tasting at the Calgary Winter Club last week. I received incredibly good feedback and have already been invited back. I loved the communication with the very interactive crowd. Wine body and wine styles were points of discussion that I have decided to explore further here today.
Although I have explained body here and wine styles here, I think to put it in the context of a specific sub-region would be fun.
Enter Valpolicella - the Northeastern Italian sub-region immediately north of the city of Verona and east of Lake Garda, within the Veneto wine region.
Feels like Valpolicella should mean something … Val … Poly … Cell??
Valpolicella is derived from Latin and Greek to signify ‘valley of many cellars!’
Told ya!
The main grape is typically Corvina. The Corvinone grape, whose name means Big Corvina due to its large clusters, can also be a main grape but is not related to Corvina genetically. The Rondinella grape must be part of the blend while Molinara (and a few others) is optional.
There are several different wines within Valpolicella. I want to focus on three different dry red wines. These Valpolicella wines are so perfect for this discussion as they are light to full bodied.
Valpolicella – which I will refer to as ‘straight Valpolicella’ here
Valpolicella Classico
Valpolicella Ripasso
They differ due to
where they are grown in the sub-region
how they are grown, mainly how growers decide to control grape yields
how they are managed in the winery.
The difference between Valpolicella and Valpolicella Classico is where they are grown. As the name implies, Classico is the sub-region where historic vineyards exist. Like the Chianti Classico sub-regions, the Valpolicella Classico zone is hilly, providing cooler temperature due to higher elevation, while the ‘straight Valpolicella’ is grown on the plains. The Classico grapes ripen slower due to lower temperatures as well as cooler soils (limestone & clay or volcanic). Slower ripening results in the Classico wines having greater flavor concentration and higher acidity.
“Straight” Valpolicella sub-region has warmer gravel & sandy soils and wine laws allowing higher grape yields, resulting in further flavor dilution.
Are you saying the vine can only produce so much flavor “units” which get distributed among all grapes?
Exactly. The higher the grape yield the lower the grapes’ flavor concentration and vice-versa.
Valpolicella – dry, fresh, simple, fruit driven, light body red wine with lower tannins and alcohol. It has aromas of rose and red cherry flavors.
Valpolicella Classico – has more concentration of flavor and tannins than the “straight” Valpolicella.
Because these wines are lighter in body, they should be served at a cooler red wine temperature range, closer to 14 degrees Celsius.
The sweet Recioto della Valpolicella and the dry or off-dry Amarone della Valpolicella wines deserve their own posts, so consider this foreshadowing! They are both made from dried or “raisined” grapes. We do however need to touch on them as one of their by-products is used to make the Ripasso wine.
At the end of the Amarone or Recioto fermentation, these wines are drained into different vessels leaving grape skins behind. This material is added to newly completed Valpolicella or Valpolicella Classico. This new mixture is allowed to undergo a second fermentation from the remaining sugars and yeast in the grape skins.
Hence the name Repass – I get it now!
Ripasso actually. And it does mean re-pass, so you are technically right.
Adding grape skins to these wines provides more color, flavor, tannins (which are components in grape skins), and alcohol (from the 2nd fermentation) to the Ripasso wine. Amarone wine (up to 15%) may also be added to the Ripasso to improve quality. All these techniques increase these wines’ body to medium or full body.
Why would the body increase again?
The components that increase a wine’s body are alcohol, tannins, and residual sugar. In this case, it is due to the additional alcohol and tannin from the second fermentation as well as the potential addition of Amarone wine. Amarone wine has a fuller body than basic Valpolicella because dried or raisined grapes are used. Due to the evaporation of water, the grape juice is more concentrated, resulting in an increased concentration of all its constituents.
Valpolicella Ripasso – dry, medium to full body wine with the most flavor concentration and tannins of the 3 wines. These wines have fresh and stewed red cherry and plum flavors.
Since the Ripasso has more body, an appropriate temperature is 16 - 18 degrees Celsius.
Now I understand why you wanted to talk about wine styles with Valpolicella. Cool that you can have the full range of body and red wine styles of Light, Medium, and Full Body reds all starting with the same wine!
Indeed, the Valpolicella dry red wines offer many styles. Stay tuned for the post on Amarone.
Farina Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore 2021 from Valpolicella, Italy
Style: Old World Medium (plus) Body Red
Varieties: 50% Corvina, 15% Corvinone, 20% Rondinella, 5% Molinara, 10% Oseleta
This rich wine has rose aromas, and flavors of sour red cherry, red ripe cherry, and red plum, which evolved to black plum and blueberry. It also offers a very alluring complexity of cinnamon, and exotic spice, kirsch, sweet wood, sweet cigar, chocolate, and leather. The ripe slightly coarse tannins and persistent finish offer very little resistance to the next sip.
Best pairings: Pairs well with savory pasta dishes such as a flavorful stuffed or baked pasta, porcini risotto, as wells as grilled meat, roasts, and aged cheeses.
Serving Temperature: 16-18 degrees Celsius
Price: Cork is currently sold old - check back on shades of grape website
Serving Tips: This wine shines with food - a classic old world style.
I have compiled all my wine recommendations in one place. I will do my best to keep this up to date. I also include the link(s) to the article in which the wine was featured.
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SOURCES:
Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella. (2023) Available at: https://www.consorziovalpolicella.it/en/ (Accessed: 27 May 2024).
Robinson, J. (2015) The oxford companion to wine. 4th rev. ed. Corby: Oxford University Press.
Wine & Spirit Education Trust (2021) D3: Wines of the World - An accompaniment to the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines. Version 1.2. London: Wine & Spirit Education Trust.