Bottega makes this in the Veneto, from the hills between Verona and Lake Garda. Ripasso is the style that gives Valpolicella its weight: the wine is run back over the skins left from Amarone, and picks up colour, body and a raisined depth it would not have on its own.
- Corvina Veronese, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara
- Valpolicella Ripasso DOC, Veneto, Italy
- 2021 vintage
- 14.5% abv
How it is made
Valpolicella Ripasso is a wine put through a second life. After the first fermentation, it is left to sit on the pomace of Amarone, the dried-grape wine of the same hills, and the skins give back colour, tannin and glycerol. The DOC rule is strict about it: the wine must be Valpolicella to begin with, and it must go back over those skins. Nothing is added to fake the weight.
How it tastes
Intense ruby red with purple tinges. Plum, red berries and ripe cherry come first, then sweet spice, vanilla and raisins from the Amarone skins. The tannin sits firm but round, and the acidity keeps it from turning heavy. There is a warmth to it that the 14.5% explains.
Good to know
Ripasso was not an official style until 2009, when it was given its own DOC. Before that it was a country habit in the hills above Verona, a way of getting a second wine out of skins that still had something to give. The name means "repassed" or "reworked" in Venetian.
