Valpolicella

Welcome to Vine to Wine, I’m your host Linda Moran.  I seem to be on a roll lately indulging in the wines of summer. Toady we continue our series about Italian wines that are well suited for summer drinking.

Valpolicella is a wine made in the Verona region of Italy in many different styles. It is unfortunate that Americans are most familiar with the lesser quality of all the styles and may look upon it as a cheesy and not very good Italian red wine. Perhaps today I can change your mind. Valpolicella is a wine blended predominantly from three grapes Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara. Most are light and fragrant with nicely balanced acids, making them fabulous for summer chilling and sipping. It is a quaffing wine known as Valpolicella Classico. But the more serious is Valpolicella Classico Superiore and it is made from the same grapes but aged for at least a year in oak and it changes the characteristic of the wine to a more serious red but still with all of the lovely fruit and floral notes and it makes it interesting and a very good wine for foods from the grill in the summer. In addition the region produces the very serious and well known wines Recioto and Amarone. They are made from the dried grapes and are intense and rich and age for a much longer time. Come on give Valpolicella a chance this summer! Remember to send your wine questions to linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.