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Italian Amarone Made by Captain Gino

July 5, 2017 | by Jess

Italian Amarone Made by Captain Gino

You can’t imagine how excited I am to announce that you can now drink the wine I’ve been perfecting for over 25 years.

There are two to choose from.

This one is my Italian Amarone.

Amarone della Valpolicella, or Amarone wine, is a rich Italian dry red wine traditionally made from a blend of Corvina, Rondinella and other red grape varieties.

Valpolicella is in the Verona province (yes!—where Romeo and Juliette was set), and various famous notable wines have been produced there since ancient times.

Amarone was assigned Denominazione di Origine Controllata status in 1990 and the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita in 2009, protecting the wine’s purity.

It’s one of the most expensive wines on the market.

The Grapes

So let’s start with the grapes.

These grapes are imported from Italy, a country that’s responsible for producing the most beautiful grapes on the planet and has more than 350 native varieties and 20 wine regions.

I use a grape blend which includes Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes, which all come from the same region in northeast Italy: Veneto.

Corvina grapes produces a light to medium body wine with a light crimson coloring, with a slight bitter almond note.

Refreshingly Beautiful

My Amarone Pairs well with many dishes

Rondinella is often blended with Corvina, a parent variety, and Molinara. Rondinella has nice neutral flavors that complement the other two perfectly.

Molinara adds the acidity needed in my blend. It is a purple-blue grape with a wonderfully bright color to it.

Once I have selected the grapes, which are traditionally picked when they are very mature, I leave them to dry into raisins to produce an intense concentration and very high sugar content.

This gives them a 15% higher alcohol level!

And it means a helluva lot of grapes go into every bottle I make. Generally, twice as many as normal wine.

The Pressing

Have you seen the scene in A Walk in the Clouds where the whole family does some mighty grape stomping? It looked something like this, without the hilarious fall:

Well, that’s not exactly how I do it, but I have done that funny dance in my time!

I actually use a destemmer and press to process my grapes.

The skins go into the wine to start off the fermentation process.

The Fermentation

Next I ferment the grape juice so it becomes wine. I add yeast, and punch down the “cap”, or top part of the wine several times per day to keep the skins in contact with the juice.

Aging and Bottling the Wine

I then age the wine in barrels for several months. I bottle it with love just for you, my family and friends.

Winemaking

Making wine is such an exciting and fulfilling process. Italians have been making wine on grand scales since before the 2nd century BC, and it was introduced to the Italian region by the Greeks centuries before.

That’s a long history.

And after the news that smelling lots of wine makes your brain Alzheimer’s disease resistant, that a glass of wine of red wine is equivalent to an hour at the gym and the pope saying, “Wine is necessary for the banquet and joy of the celebration,” don’t you think it’s time to indulge in a little wine yourself?

How to Enjoy The Wine

There are lots of ways to enjoy wine. Recently, some new wine recipes have become extremely popular.

Here’s a wine gummy bears recipe, and a red wine hot cocoa recipe for you to enjoy, and mix it up a bit!

You could also pair my Amarone with Risotto con porchini mushrooms, assorted cheeses or osso buco.

Enjoy!

An amazing bottle of 1974 Amarone

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarone
http://winefolly.com/review/why-amarone-wine-is-worth-the-price/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondinella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinara_(grape)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wine
https://www.curejoy.com/content/new-study-says-glass-red-wine-equivalent-hour-gym/
http://winefolly.com/review/how-wine-is-made-in-pictures/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_grape_varieties

Images courtesy of Don LaVange on Flickr and Wikipedia.