I must say I feel pretty privileged doing what I do. Simply picking some wine bottles, opening them, tasting them, and writing about them is incredible. It is even more so when we find something extraordinary. Wines are plenty on this earth’s surface, but perfect ones are sometimes hard to find. It’s like finding a gold nugget in the Australian bush.
Sartori di Verona is an Italian winemaker based in the City of Verona, Italy. Although we had never heard of them and never tasted their wines, we were immediately excited by looking at the bottle.
The cork was a bit dry. It did a perfect job hiding away the wine for the past five years, but I feel it would have struggled if we were to have saved the bottle for another five years. It may very well lie on the improper resting of the bottle over the past years. We always recommend buying wine that you want to keep for a long time directly from the producers.
Pouring it into the glass, we discover a dark but elegant red color. The nuances are very dark; we could almost compare it to ink. We pick up some dry fruits, cherries, and spices on the nose. The oak barrels’ smell is very subtle. Being kept for two years in a barrel, we can only assume that large 1000 liter barrels were used. Either way, they were kept very clean. Nothing is worse than tasting wet wood flooring in your wine. Even if the oaky notes are cleaner, they sometimes bother. Many producers get too much or too little oak in their wines, and often those notes interfere with the wine’s complexity. It is refreshing to see that people still use barrels only to underline very subtle characteristics.
We immediately notice that it has almost no bitterness. You get a powerful bitter aftertaste with other Amarone wines, which usually holds you back from going in for a second sip. Instead, we only perceive firm tannins, low acidity, and a complex bitter-sweet balance. Is it a bit sweet or a bit bitter? You cannot really decide. This dilemma dominates an almost perfect aftertaste that forces you to taste it repeatedly. It truly is a rich, full-bodied, well-balanced wine with dark cherry notes. Half an hour after opening the bottle, the oaky notes intensify, and the overall taste becomes even more elegant.
This is what a sensual wine should be. It should make you keep tasting it and keep discovering new flavors and depths with every drop. The saddest part of your experience is when you run out of wine. By looking at the half-full glass, I feel my glasses are not worthy of this wine and that it should probably be a crime to buy this quality at this price. The wine could do with three more years in the bottle. It would further evolve into this almost perfect expression of what wines are really about. You don’t buy outstanding wine for the taste, the same way you don’t buy a sports car for the paint job or even the engine. You buy them both for the emotions they unleash when enjoying them. If it ever was a perfect bottle of Amarone, this is probably it.
We hope the producer stays focused and spoils us with this type of quality again in the future. Simply go out and buy this wine, pair it with heavy meats or some very bold cheeses and enjoy!
