1982 Cesari Amarone della Valpolicella, DOCG "Classico" region, 14% abv.Was gifted this bottle perhaps 20 years ago by a favorite (Italian) aunt, and as she is now not doing very well I thought I would open it so I could report back to her while that was still possible. The occasion was my birthday dinner last night, a week late due to my wife's ill-timed flu (very inconsiderate of her).
I have to admit, I've only had a handful of Amarones in my life. I was not enamored of them the first time I tried one, nor the 3 or 4 times after that. That classic forward bitter note is/was so off-putting, and the trumpet blare of other flavors so overwhelming that, coupled with the usual 15+ % abv, all adds up to a style of wine I never really took to.
Still, this birthday bottle came in at only 14%, and it
was almost 35 years old, so I was hopeful that combo may have tamed things a bit. (Couldn't check the color or sediment through the opaque bottle.)
The bottle was opened 2 1/2 hours before dinner, then decanted at service. Really nice ruddy orange color, almost right to the rim, not watery at all. The nose was surprisingly muted, which made it all the more startling when -
WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!Bitter!Whew. "The Great Bitter" is no misnomer. That first taste made me literally cringe. Yeah, there were some flavors behind it. Eventually. But it wasn't worth the pain. It was like drinking a glass of Angostura. I thought I was gonna have to toss the bottle.
Fortunately I didn't. After about 15 minutes things simmered down and became much more balanced. There was still a distinct bitter start to the palate, which you'd expect of the style, but it didn't make me cry any more. And behind that pucker there was a rich melange of raisin and fig and orange peel and god knows what else all jostling around in there. Certainly one of the more complex flavors it's ever been my pleasure to swirl, and thanks to the aging process (I'm assuming) not as
jarringly complex as the younger Amarones I'd had previously.
I'm glad I had produced a meal of equally rich and complex flavors to stand up to this beast. Anything demure would have been swallowed up and blasted into oblivion. All in all then, a really fun wine to drink first on its own, then paired with a variety of foodstuffs afterwards. It's so rare to come across novel (to me) flavors these days, as opposed to just variations of the same handful of grape varieties and blends, that "fun" really is the apt word here.
My wife liked it too. But she's Irish. It had alcohol in it.
For dessert I would have liked to have continued the
Viva Italia! theme with a moscato passito (one of my favorite sweeties), but having none settled for a BV "Muscat de Beaulieu" (NV, 18% abv) which normally sells for $9/375ml at Gary's, but was on sale last week for SIX DOLLARS! Even at full price this is one of my all-time favorite wine values. Went a treat with red pears and blue Castello last night. Polychrome dessert!
Ok, lets see if I can get my pic of the Amarone to post....
Nope. Good grief, why does it always say "
The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.
It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image." whenever I try to attach pics lately, even when I scale the size waaaaaaaay down?
Oh well. If you want to see the wine in glass, just click:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f7/ff/59/f7ff59cd2902a8c96e35df972884ed2a.jpg. Sorry.
Well, that ran over long as usual. I'm nothing if not consistent, right? But I've had nothing else to do this morning while my Little Irish Rose sleeps off her drunk