Bertani - Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2012 (750ml)
Intense red color with hints of garnet. On the nose, typical notes of plum, cherry and Morello cherry followed by tea leaves, licorice and spices. On the palate, notes of red berry fruit sweetened by soft notes of spices, in perfect balance with acidity.
80% Corvina Veronese, 20% Rondinella
Bertani Description
Classics resist the passage of time. The classics defy time. That’s Bertani: beyond fashion and method wines, always faithful to an elegant style, with color that is never exaggerated. Above all, it is always dry.
James Suckling: 98 Points
Wow. Such a complex nose, with a base of dried cherry, spruced up with hints of mild coffee and walnuts. Then there are dried flowers, wild herbs and spices, such as tarragon and cloves. Subtle hints of dried banana and apricot, too. The palate is full, super sleek, intense and well-balanced, with tight, spice-coated tannins that drive everything forward. Long, long finish. Lovely to taste now, but this already almost ten-year-old will sit comfortably in your cellar for a long while yet.
Wine Enthusiast: 95 Points
This wine is pure in its fruit, earnestness and joy. It opens with aromas of vibrant red plum, macerated red cherries and raspberries followed by cocoa powder, oolong tea and dried violets. Each sniff of the glass brings a new aroma. The wine is earth-driven on the palate, with tobacco and dried red and black fruits blending well with mixed herbs, savory spices and elegant tannins, all leading to a fresh acidity that makes the wine pop on the finish.
Vinous: 93 Points
The 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico takes its time opening in the glass, slowly evolving with a rich blend of crushed black cherries complemented by dusty violet florals and exotic spice. This coasts across the palate, silky-smooth yet with cooling minerality and brisk acids that add an energetic feel as a saturation of red fruits and fine tannins collect toward the close. The 2012 finishes lightly structured with a resonance of balsamic spice and bitter hints of cocoa that linger on and on - a fantastic and genuinely harmonious rendition of Bertani's Amarone Classico.
Wine Advocate: 93 Points
This is the first vintage made under the current winemaking team. When I look back to 2012, I remember thickly concentrated, fruit-forward wines that were made after a very hot summer that saw dry winds blow north from Africa over much of Italy. Generally speaking, the wines embraced monolithic elements with lots of black fruit at the base. However, the Bertani 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella offers surprising complexity and depth with neatly compact fruit flavors. It shows a pretty garnet appearance with dried cherry aromas, cedar and light smoke, and you definitely taste minerality and crushed stone.
Wine Spectator: 93 Points
An elegant version, fresh and medium- to full-bodied, with crisp definition from fine-grained tannins, a rich, minerally baseline of fresh earth and iron, and a pleasing range of plumped cherry, raspberry paste, Earl Grey tea leaf and sandalwood notes that linger on the finish. Corvina and Rondinella.
