This was excellent. It was tannic yet showing age. I think I caught it at peak. Typical Dal Forno profile: flavors of chocolate and dark berries; powerful, fragrant and rich. I prefer a more subtle, traditional style (Quintarelli), but the quality here is indisputable. Most producers’ Amarone can’t reach the level of this wine.
There were large globs of soft clay-like sediment, including on the base of the cork. I’ve only seen this in Amarone. I suspect it is a consequence of the production method, which is shared for this wine.
Next month I will open my last bottle of '98 Quintarelli Valpolicella and post results here.
These can be nice wines. I wish they weren’t so pricey. You know it is weird, sometimes with all that ripeness I still get some green notes. And I don’t like the green notes at all. Not on this particular bottle but on the wines overall.
The green notes with Dal Forno seem to be similar to volatile acidity with Quintarelli. There is a great deal of bottle variation, but the best bottles are exceptional.
The wine is certainly expensive. I’ve been holding this for a while, so my cost was around $70. I see it’s currently selling for double my cost. I would not pay over $100 for this wine, but I also try to keep relative value in mind. Most decent Amarone costs $50+, and this wine is better.
Slightly after release a group of us purchased the 01’ trio to try, side by side, Recioto, Valpolicella, Amarone. At such a young age they were so difficult to differentiate as they were all such blockbusters, each level just ratcheting the intensity up another notch.
Thanks for the notes.
One of these days I’ll try Dal Forno’s recioto (I can’t recall it’s current name). Quintarelli’s version is among my favorite wines, so I tend to stick to what I know, given the prices.
Never had a properly aged example and judging from a recent grange tasting where one from the 80’s destroyed everything else including some of my favorites Im going to let some of these especially the amarones rest for a decade and see what I see
Thanks for the note. I bought a bottle of this and the Amarone to celebrate my attorney getting me off a malpractice case. I still have both. Obviously I should try the Valpolicella before the Amarone. I almost opened the Valpolicella last night.
