My dad has an extensive Zenato and Amarone collection that he’s lately been opening up with me as I’ve gotten interested in wine. I’m talking about an impressive vertical ranging from 1964 to early 2000s.
I slowly aerated from bottle for about 1.5 hours and drank over a period of 2 hours and paired with matured and rich Italian cheeses.
Dark garnet color. The nose was dark fruit such as raisin and prunes. On the pallet it was the same dark fruit with a sweet and spicy finish. I think this is exactly what an old Amarone should taste like. It was superb.
This was my favorite amarone out of the 2 others I’ve had (Bertani 1999 and Zenato 1995). I can’t remember my notes on the Bertani, but the 95 Zenato was not a good bottle. I think I may have decanted too quickly and over a too long of a period of 3 hours. It was musty and had a vinegar finish.
Don’t drink Amarone outside of perhaps 1x a year as I find it a tad plodding, and food tends to be hesvier or rocher tonstand up to it, but aged Amarone can bring some intereating flavors and better balance.
Drank a few old Bertsni’s from their cellar as I sold it for years.
The oldest Zenato Amarone Riserva I’ve had was 1990 and it was a fine wine.
However, on average I’ve seen that very few Amarones actually age gracefully for decades. I’ve had a handful from the 1950’s and 1970’s that have been still in an excellent condition, but for the most part I really don’t think most Amarones develop much beyond 20 years and many start to fall apart after about 30 years.
And the biggest problem is that even after all that aging, many Amarones still remain quite huge and clumsy wines with no real sense of finesse. Just aged complexity.
