Ca'Erto Amarone della Valpolicella 2015

“When you have had a taste of excellence, you cannot go back to mediocrity.”  --Maximillian Degenerez

And for any of the legions of you fine people who have had the Amarone (or ANY wine) from the wonderful Magnabosco family (father/daughter team), you KNOW, and you will already be off, clicking it into your cart. If you are new to it --- well, we suggest reading this scrawl for no more than 21 seconds or so….because…..AMARONE!! 

Not $85. Not $65. No. BETTER. And the wine….gobsmackingly delish. We NEVER get NEARLY enough Amarone (maybe once a year if the stars align correctly). So PLEASE, please, if you love luscious, sexy, hedonistic Italian Amarone, go, go , go and grab this sexy beast ASAP. Sound advice from your trusty wine merchant --- if you bought the 2014 from us, you KNOW the deal!

--- Fun fact: last year, we took Marta to Thomas Keller’s Bouchon for dinner, and then took her to the THE dive-iest bar in the whole Napa Valley, where she kicked our butts in a game of 8-Ball. Truth!

Amarone! The way Amarone is made is fascinating (and beautiful) -- check out this video. It’s time-consuming, yields are very small, but the final product is so unique and lavishly delish.

This is the top cuvee of the winery and we often think of Amarone as we do a killer Sonoma Zinfandel with all of its lush, sweet, hedonistic, raisiny ripe fruit, but it's really much more complex and refined, while still packing in all the juicy, curranty blueberry flavor. Warm, generous, round and belly-warming, the 2015 version packs a bit more power and concentration than the excellent ‘14 -- we think it’s Marta’s best yet. Waves of ripe fruit, cedar, molasses, black plum, toasted spices, star anise, utterly mouthcoating and long while retaining freshness. WE LOVE IT! Anyway, better mellow it out - there’s not much! Good luck!