Exceptional quality organic Amarone: The Wine Hunter 2020 “Gold”, Sakura Awards 2020 “Double Gold”

This Amarone is Massimago’s top of the range wine, produced by Camilla Rossi-Chauvenet – the estate’s owner and winemaker. It has a very rich and concentrated flavour of strawberries and orange peel. This is underpinned by complex notes of vanilla and leather after four years of careful ageing in oak and in bottle. The wine is made from selected grapes from a single vineyard, planted on a hilltop at 350 metres above sea level. The limestone-rich soil lends a distinctive fresh character to this wine.

To produce this Amarone wine, the grapes are hand-harvested before they are fully ripe so they’re still full of natural zingy acidity. Then, they are dried in fruttaio – an indoor drying loft – for eighty days. Because of this technique, the grapes achieve an exceptional concentration of flavours and sugars. They are then crushed and left to cold macerate for five days. After this, the alcoholic fermentation takes place at low temperature, over an extended period of thirty days – to extract more flavours, colours, and tannins from the skins. Next, the wine is aged for thirty months in large oak barrels, filtered, bottled and left for another twelve months to mature and let its flavours integrate for the maximum effect.

Result? This vintage has won a prestigious “Double Gold” award in Japan, and was also awarded the “Gold” diploma from The Wine Searcher team of experts, who blind-taste hundreds of Italian wines. Not for everyday drinking, it makes a perfect gift for special occasions and family get-togethers like Christmas and Easter.

Tasting notes

Medium ruby colour. This rich and powerful Amarone is bursting with aromas of fresh strawberry, orange peel and banana, with an added complexity from notes of vanilla, raspberry jam, raisin and leather. It is dry and full bodied, with rounded but strong tannins, medium acidity and high alcohol. It’s undoubtedly a powerful wine which offers an intense mix of fruits, tannins, zingy acidity and high alcohol. A whirlwind in the glass.

Ageing potential

15 years

Awards

The WineHunter 2020: “Gold” (2015 vintage) | Decanter World Wine Awards 2020 – Silver (2015 vintage) | “Sakura Double Gold” Japan Women’s Wine Awards 2020 (2015 vintage) | Falstaff – 92 points (2015 vintage)