Amarone wine from Italy is a perfect wine to drink during a heavy meal or as an after dinner delight. Guerrieri Rizzardi Amarone Valpolicella 1998 has an intense bouquet. The ideal serving temperature is around 20ºC, after a few hours of decanting. The wine is aged for at least three years in oak barrels and fined for six to twelve months in the bottle. This Amarone is a limited edition wine in numbered bottles. It is only made certain years when the grapes are perfect, in the Gran Cru style. Calcarole is a Cru or designated hillside vineyard site that rises above the Villa di Rovereti in the heart of Negrar in the Valpolicella Classico Area.
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This wine is produced exclusively by Guerrieri Rizzardi. The grapes are selected from among the vines of the rocky and stony hill of Calcarole rising above the Villa di Rovereti in heart of Negrar in the Valpolicella Classica area. The Amarone draws its vigour and structure from the particular terrain, which is poor and stoney, and from the notable quantities of Corvina selected for the drying process and wine making. This careful choice of grapes took place in the middle of September. The Rizzardi family has lived in the walls of the town of Bardolino, with Lake Garda at the bottom of the garden, since 1450. Its Valpolicellas are subtle, elegant and serious. Winemaker Giuseppe Rizzardi selects around 25% of the grapes for drying, and is currently researching where the aromatics in Amarone come from – they emerge, he says, with a long drying period. Shorten the drying period and you don't get them.

RATING: Highly Recomended - DECANTER
Highly Recommended - Wine Spectator (One of Highest Scores for an Amarone).

Date vineyard created: First half of the nineteenth century
Vineyard: The Calcarole vineyards in Rovereti, in the municipality of Negrar
Surface area: About 5 ha.
1998 production: 25 hl (3.400 bott.)
Alcohol content: 16% by volume
CULTIVATION
Geology: Dark soil on a 50 cm substrate of calcareous rock
Varieties of vines: Corvina gentile, corvinone, rondinella, barbera, san giovese
Cultivation method: Simple guyot
Root: stock 41 b and SO 4
Vine density per hectare: 4,000
Production after drying: 24 %
Harvest: By hand
Drying: In plateaux and on cane beds in the fruit rooms of Pojega
WINE MAKING PROCESS Date of pressing: 26th of February 1999
Process: Fermentation in barrels of 18 and 25 hl
Length of fermentation period: About 1 month before drawing off of the wine
Fermentation temperature: 20 to 25°C
Temperature control: Initial warming of the must in cold cellar
Fermenting" vats 18 and 25 hl Slavonian and French oak barrels
Aging: in cellar 48 months in 25 hl Slavonian and French oak barrels
Bottling: 17.03.2003
PRESENTATION Bottle: 0.75 litre long antique Bordolese
Label: and back label Classic and numbered for each vintage