We sit in the beautiful New York room in the splendid Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. In front of us three glasses, containing some of the more expensive wines one gets from Italy. Romano dal Forno presents the history and philosophy of his famous azienda in a soft and gentle voice, often using metaphors to make a special point. In spite of being one of the big names in the wine world, he is clearly not a man of big words, but, on the other hand, there is no mistaking that he speaks very gladly and with many words about his life as a wine producer. I have once before had the pleasure of meeting the producer of what is arguably the most impressive Valpolicella and Amarone there is, when I visited the Valpolicella region in May 2007. Now he is in Sweden for the first time and together with his importer, Mats Hoff, he is presenting three of his wines. Here are some short notes from the tasting:
2003 Valpolicella Dense deep and concentrated with a strong note of toasty oak, chocolate, meat and even some hot dogs. Some of the oak is blowing away with some time in the glass and become better integrated. Taste is equally deep and concentrated with warm, mature fruit but still with a good acidity. Rather heave and coarde tannins. Ending a bit heavy and a bit coarse. Needs decanting and/or some time.
2002 Amarone della Valpolicella Clean, deep, fresh fruit. Dark cherries. some choclate and hot dogs from the barriques. Also kind of a hard stoniness in the background. Some sweetness initially on the palate, then dense, massive fruit and some fire from the alcohol (more than 17% ABV!). Heavy but wonderfully integrated tannins. Very long fiery aftertaste with astringency. there is a hardness behind the marvelously clean fruit, but a fantastic achievement in this most difficult vintage. What amazes me is how dal Forno manages to combine extreme power and concentration with elegance.
2003 Vigna Seré this should really have been a Recioto della Valpolicella, but the tasting commission refuse to let it pass as such due to its remarkably strong tannins, so it is in fact an ITG Verona.
The colour is remarkably deep purple with a luminescent, cerise rim. Dense, most aromatic nose of dark cherry juice and liquorice. Fine initial sweetness and a very refreshing acidity. Extremely pure fruit. Then comes the tannins, very fine grained, almost chalky, giving a great structure to the wine and a long, chewy aftertaste. A remarkable wine!
Then in the evening I happen to end up joining Romano and his wife for a dinner at the Stockholm restaurant Gondolen. The restaurant has good food and an excellent wine list. We decided not to have any Italian wines, so we ended up with
1988 Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg, Breuer (Charta wine) quite a daring choice, regarding the age of the wine, but when we found it on the wine list, we felt we just had to try it. The nose was that of a deliciously mature Riesling. Still with some fruit and not too aged, but of course clearly showing its age. The taste was wonderfully balanced. Just a hint of sweetness and a great acidity. Spicy and mature. then sadly just dying in the mouth, almost showing no aftertaste. Still, a great experience to taste on of my favourite German wines of this age.
As a balance to this very mature wine we chose 2001 Singerriedel Smaragd, Hirtzberger.Wachau, one of Austria's greatest Rieslings. The text on the bottle told us it was harvested in the end of November! Very deep, almost heavy nose. Some alcohol showing through the deep Riesling fruit. Concentrated, powerful taste. Deep minerality and some alcohol giving it power and a long, mineral aftertaste. Still a bit young, but very impressive.
For the carnivores, we also had a red from South Africa: 2003 Columella. Very deep fruit and totally lacking the burned and a bit coarse character so often found in South African wines. Instead very clean and fresh fruit. Also the taste was clean and fruity, but without being simple and uninteresting. Furry tannins and a slightly earthy aftertaste. A fine wine.
I went home after this time with the great Romano dal Forno feeling very privileged, but also rather tired, much from having played the role of being the interpreter of the evening, until a native Italian girl towards the end finally came to give me some possibility to relax and just enjoy a fine evening.
Cheers, Anders