Amarone, Casa dei Bepi, 2016

Perched 450 metres above sea level in the cool, lofty Mazzano sub zone, this estate make some of the region’s most vibrant examples. In the fifteen years we have been working with them, we can never remember tasting a finer vintage of the old vines Casa dei Bepi than this 2015. The style is distinctly less heavy and more fresh fruit-orientated than most. A really surprising wine that, despite a standard Amarone alcohol percentage of 16%, drinks with remarkable ease. Complex without being heavy; elegant, lively and intense this is so layered, fluid and silky – offering notes of fresh cherry, kirsch, rose, red berry, cocoa and mocha. Before you get any sense of hedonism or richness, you are already swept away by its sensuality, agility and style. We can’t think of a more soft-touch, precision Amarone. Exquisite. A hand-picked old vines cuvee, made from grapes dried for four months in well-aerated small cases in the windy drying house overlooking the town of Negrar far below. The wine is then aged for three years in barriques.