At the beginning of my explorations on Week C (2013) I selected an example of one style of Valpolicella, a red wine from the Veneto region in North-East Italy. That one was a dessert wine in the Recioto style. This week we have a dry wine, made from the same blend of grapes, but made in the Ripasso style.
Week R (2015) Ripasso di Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Waitrose £11.99
The long name of the Waitrose own brand wine tells us quite a bit about it. Firstly, it tells us that it is from Valpolicella, a wine-making region not far from Verona and the 'Classico' means it is from the traditional heart of the region and not from a more recently extended territory. The basic wines from this region are fresh, light and acidic, intended to be bottled, sold and opened soon after the grapes have been picked and the wine made. The grape varieties, for readers not inclined to go back and check, are Corvina, Molinara and Rondinella.
The next step up gives us 'Superiore' which tells us that the wine has been aged for at least one year before being released for sale and has a minimum of 12% alcohol by volume. This makes it a more full bodied and richer wine.
Richer still is the Ripasso style, but to understand that we must first consider the remaining style: Amarone.
Amarone is the Italian word for bitter, but don't let this put you off. Think of more as dry and powerful. To produce Amarone the grapes are picked and then left to partially dry on straw mats for as long as four months before being fermented and the wine produced. This is to allow the flavours and sugars in the grapes to concentrate as the water content decreases through evaporation. Once the fermentation has completed and the wine has been pressed from he grape skins, the winemaker is left with two things. A strong, fuller flavoured dry wine and a pile of skins. There's nothing unusual about this, but that is where Ripasso comes in.
More Italian to English translation: Ripasso means 'repassed'. So in this case, the Valpolicella Classico Superiore we made earlier is now repassed over the skins leftover from the making of the Amarone (and, indeed the sweet Recioto) allowing additional flavour, tannin and glycerol left in the skins to be extracted into the wine, to give us a result that fits between the standard wine and the expensive Amarone.
This Ripasso is full bodied and bursts with cherries and dark fruits. I think the Italians have got a good thing going with this range of styles. Everything from a light easy to drink wine, through richer styles to a serious red heavyweight and even rounding of with the sweet dessert wine. All good.
The long name of the Waitrose own brand wine tells us quite a bit about it. Firstly, it tells us that it is from Valpolicella, a wine-making region not far from Verona and the 'Classico' means it is from the traditional heart of the region and not from a more recently extended territory. The basic wines from this region are fresh, light and acidic, intended to be bottled, sold and opened soon after the grapes have been picked and the wine made. The grape varieties, for readers not inclined to go back and check, are Corvina, Molinara and Rondinella.
The next step up gives us 'Superiore' which tells us that the wine has been aged for at least one year before being released for sale and has a minimum of 12% alcohol by volume. This makes it a more full bodied and richer wine.
Richer still is the Ripasso style, but to understand that we must first consider the remaining style: Amarone.
Amarone is the Italian word for bitter, but don't let this put you off. Think of more as dry and powerful. To produce Amarone the grapes are picked and then left to partially dry on straw mats for as long as four months before being fermented and the wine produced. This is to allow the flavours and sugars in the grapes to concentrate as the water content decreases through evaporation. Once the fermentation has completed and the wine has been pressed from he grape skins, the winemaker is left with two things. A strong, fuller flavoured dry wine and a pile of skins. There's nothing unusual about this, but that is where Ripasso comes in.
More Italian to English translation: Ripasso means 'repassed'. So in this case, the Valpolicella Classico Superiore we made earlier is now repassed over the skins leftover from the making of the Amarone (and, indeed the sweet Recioto) allowing additional flavour, tannin and glycerol left in the skins to be extracted into the wine, to give us a result that fits between the standard wine and the expensive Amarone.
This Ripasso is full bodied and bursts with cherries and dark fruits. I think the Italians have got a good thing going with this range of styles. Everything from a light easy to drink wine, through richer styles to a serious red heavyweight and even rounding of with the sweet dessert wine. All good.
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