More from Vinitaly - Veneto

A rather nasty cold has curtailed my wine intake over the past week, so I'll use this time to try to catch up with more notes from Vinitaly. Today I'll tackle the Veneto. Rather than one massive day of tasting from the home region of Vinitaly, we spread these out over the full 5 days. Unfortunately, my Thursday notes were a bit incomplete, so I've not got much other than the producers for the first few.

Our initial tasting at Vinitaly was with the wines of Brig'aldara. From my recollection, we tasted their Valpolicella, Ripasso, and Amarone. All were solid if not spectacular, though I must also note here that we drank the Valpolicella with lunch one day on the trip (by the glass), and also the 2003 Amarone at dinner one night in Venice. The 03 Amarone especially was quite good.

Up next at Vinitaly was Speri. Here, we were lucky enough to have one of the members of the Speri family (son Luca) guide our tasting of the La Roverina Valpolicella, the Sant'Urbano Valpolicella, the Ripasso, and the Amarone. Luca was really great at giving us lots of info on the wines as well as the Speri philosophy - they are focused on a very traditional style, producing more elegant wines that will typically require some age. I have to admit that I was not high on Speri before this, but the tasting really opened my eyes, and I look forward to drinking more of their wines. In fact, we did actually drink a bottle of their Amarone Friday night at dinner. We had plenty of choices too, as that dinner was at the Bottega del Vino in Verona, one of the great restaurants for wine you will ever come across.

Our last producer on Day 1 was Giuseppe Campagnola. There we tasted a Valpolicella, followed by two Amarones, the Amarone Classico as well as the Amarone Caterina Zardini.

Saturday, we got another treat when we went to the booth of Tommaso Bussola. After some initial difficulty, we were seated and hosted by a woman who we would discover to be Daniella Bussola, wife of Tommaso. She proceeded to guide us through an extended tasting of several wines and vintages, beginning with the 2003 and 2004 L'Errante. This wine is an IGT made with a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varietals, and is quite good, though atypical for a Veronese wine.

We followed that with all three of Bussola's 2004 Amarones, the Amarone Classico, the Amarone TB, and the Amarone Vigneto Alto. Each presented a different profile, with the TB probably my favorite (the Vigneto Alto came across just a little too sweet for me, almost like a Recioto).

Finally, our tasting finished with two Reciotos, the 2005 Recioto Classico and the 2003 Recioto TB. These were both amazingly good, sweet and thick, like a liquid dessert. They are special wines that anyone who wants a really great sweet wine should search out. Just a note to remember - don't try drinking any other regular wine afterward (we tried and unfortunately it ruined my taste buds for some quality stuff we had later).

Sunday, we finally made it to one of the big producers of the region with a stop at Allegrini. The tasting there started with their two basic IGT's from the 2005 vintage, Palazzo della Torre and La Grola. I have always loved the Palazzo della Torre as a favrorite regualr purchase, starting with the 1998 vintage. For 2005 through, this tasting definitely favored La Grola (perhaps it was the bit of Syrah in the blend). We then stepped up to the 2004 La Poja, another IGT blend, and finally the 2005 Amarone. Both of these were very good, though not at a higher level than many of the top Amarones we tasted.

Moving back to a smaller producer, we then tasted the wines of Stefano Accordini. Tiziano Accordini (Stefano's son) was our gracious host, and one of the friendliest people we met during the trip. We tasted the 2004 Amarone Acianatico, the 2001 Amarone Riserva (very good) and finally the 2005 Recioto. We enjoyed our visit so much that we ended up stopping in for a final taste of the Amarone on Monday before departing for Milan.

Monday, we once again went big and small. First up was Masi, probably the biggest of the Veneto producers. We started with the 2005 Ripasso Campofiorin, followed by the 2003 Serego Alighieri Valpolicella. Next up was the 2004 IGT Toar, an indigenous grape usually only blended in small quantities, which was different than most anything else tasted from the region. Finally, we had two Amarones, the 2003 Costasera Riserva and the 2001 Mazzano.

We concluded our Vinitaly extravaganza with a great tasting of the wines of Lorenzo Begali. His young son Giordano led us through this impressive lineup, beginning with their 2007 Valpolicella. Up next was the 2006 Ripasso, followed by the 2005 Tigiolo, an IGT blend. We then moved to the Amarones, with the 2004 Amarone Classico and the 2003 Amarone Monte Ca Bianca, before finishing with the 2005 Recioto. This was a great overall lineup, and a producer I definitely recommend to search out (I've seen a bit of their wine in Charlottesville, but that's it in the US).

I know there's a lot here, but it should be a pretty comprehensive listing of some of the best the Veneto has to offer (well, it excludes Dal Forno, but that visit will be in its own post sometime later). There's certainly other producers we missed, but all those visited offer a wide range of classical and modern wines from a region that many Americans may overlook, but Italians recognize as one of their real treasures.