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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Valpolicella, Verona province, Veneto, Italy

Amarone della Valpolicella (appassimento)Amarone della Valpolicella

Amarone is a dry red wine made from Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes that are dried indoors for 100–120 days before they are crushed. The dried grapes must reach at least 14 % potential alcohol, and the wine is aged at least two years before sale. Made in 5 steps over 2.3 years. The longest step, age before release, takes at least 2 years (Disciplinare di produzione DOCG vini "Amarone…). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Oenococcus oeni do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 yearsSet[docg-gu2019]Age before release
Temperature21 °CMeasured[tomasi2021]Malolactic fermentation
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks2.3 yearsPDO (DOCG Amarone della Valpolicella)Family: Red wineMore alcoholic drinksMore from Italy

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe DOCG specification fixes the grape mix as shares of the vineyard, not a batch size. The dried grapes may give at most 40 litres of wine per 100 kg.
45–95 %Corvina Veronese and/or Corvinone grapes[docg-gu2019][am02-2019]
5–30 %Rondinella grapes[docg-gu2019]
Up to 25 % in allOther red grapes allowed in Verona province · Non-aromatic reds up to 15 % (10 % per variety); Italian native reds for the other 10 %[pdo-sd2014]
Starterdefined-culture (selected wine yeast) or spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.3 years

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: sound Corvina and Rondinella bunches

Step 1 of 5
Pick and set the grapes aside
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Oenococcus oeni
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In one study the grapes were picked ten days before the normal Valpolicella harvest. Output: selected bunches.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
whole, sound bunches
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Ordinary red wine is fermented from fresh grapes at harvest. For Amarone the grapes first dry indoors for three to four months, losing about a third of their weight, so the wine is stronger and fuller and is not made until December at the earliest.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Amarone della Valpolicella riservaAged at least 4 years from 1 November of the harvest year; non-reducing extract at least 32.0 g/L.
  • Recioto della ValpolicellaA separate PDO of the same zone, made sweet from dried grapes (Wikipedia, outline only).
  • RipassoValpolicella wine re-fermented on the pomace left from Amarone (Wikipedia, outline only).

Safety

No safety issue beyond that of ordinary red wine. The rules ban drying the grapes with heated dehumidifiers; that rule protects the style and is not a safety limit.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The single document says drying grapes has been traditional in Valpolicella since the 4th century and that the first bottle labelled Amarone dates from 1953. Amarone was part of the Valpolicella DOC from 1968 and is now a DOCG and an EU PDO.

  1. [pdo-sd2014] European Commission, eAmbrosia register, "Amarone della Valpolicella" PDO-IT-A0435-AM01, technical file and single document, Ref. Ares(2014)2064777, 24 June 2014spec
  2. [docg-gu2019] Disciplinare di produzione DOCG vini "Amarone della Valpolicella", consolidated text (DM 30 November 2011, amended DM 7 March 2014) with proposed amendments, Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Serie generale n. 122, 27 May 2019, Allegatospec
  3. [am02-2019] European Commission, eAmbrosia register, "Amarone della Valpolicella" PDO-IT-A0435-AM02, standard amendment, Ref. Ares(2019)5724461, 12 September 2019 (Corvinone may make up to 95 %)spec
  4. [tomasi2021] Tomasi D. et al. 2021, Effects of traditional and modern post-harvest withering processes on the composition of the Vitis v. Corvina grape and the sensory profile of Amarone wines, Molecules 26(17):5198paper
  5. [stefanini2017] Stefanini I. et al. 2017, Core microbiota and metabolome of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Corvina grapes and musts, Frontiers in Microbiology 8:457 (abstract)paper
  6. [wp-amarone] Wikipedia, Amarone (outline only)wiki