Amarone vs Recioto

Amarone and Recioto are the two most important wines of Valpolicella: they are well known all over the world for their unique characteristics.

Let’s see the differences: both wines are red, made from raised (appassimento) grapes  of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta and Negrara. The grapes are manually  selected at the beginning of September in small boxes and they are left to dry in the” fruittaio”  till January.

The difference in the production process is in the final part: in the Amarone all the sugar is transformed into alcohol by the yeast.

The wine is separated from the skins when all the sugar is fermented in alcool and so it is a dry wine.

In the Recioto fermentation has been stopped in the middle  to get a well structured wine with a lower alcohol content than the Amarone but with an important sugar

residual so as to have a sweet dessert wine. Recioto was already known in Roman times,  Amarone has a recent history: a wine maker forgot to stop the fermentation in a Recioto barrel.

The wine become dry and when he tasted it said “This is an Amarone”. Amaro is the Italian for bitter. He enjoyed the wines, he bottled and it has been a so big success that the mistake has been repeated every year!