Cesari - Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOG

So I wasn't paying attention, and my last post (about a fancy California Cabernet) was my 400th post! It was a nice bottle to review but nothing super rare or extravagant, so for my 401st post, I will belatedly celebrate with this super fancy Italian red wine: the famous Amarone della Valpolicella from the shores of Lake Garda in the Veneto region of northern Italy. This wine is 100% estate grown by Cesari Vineyards, a longstanding producer of Amarone. This "Classico", the first of five levels of rarity, is comprised of three grapes - 75% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, and 5% Molinara, all three being varietals native to Italy.

Oh, yeah, and the bottle is 5 liters, or 6.5 times the size of a normal wine bottle. That's a little under one-and-a-half gallons! This is not the largest size, either. There's probably 20 or so wine bottle sizes, ranging from a tiny piccolo bottle (187mL, barely a glass) to insanely large bottles that stand four feet tall and contain over 40 regular bottles' worth. Fun fact: large-format bottles have special names, typically Biblical - this format is called a "Bordeaux Jeroboam". Other sizes are Rehoboams at 4.5 liters, Methuselahs are 8 liters, the 20-liter Nebuchadnezzar, and much more. The largest bottle is the Melchizedek, at 30 liters, although these are seldom made.

OK, the wine has been breathing for a while, so let's give this a go. Care must be taken to pour, as it's such a large bottle.

This wine is remarkably velvety and smooth, with the main flavor notes being fig, dried apricot, red grapes, and a touch of wood. Not much in terms of spice or leather, and the wine is somewhat tannic but without a major bite. Interestingly, the finish of the wine reminds me of candied fruit, with a slight tinge of sherry. Not oxidized, mind you, but that peculiar sherry flavors. Very warming and soft, long finish. I really enjoyed it - the dried apricot notes really balanced the red grape skins and gave it a somewhat sweeter profile.

This is my first time having Amarone, so I wanted to learn a little bit more about it so I asked Eddie Janik, rep for Opici Wines and a former D'Vines capo, to tell me more. According to Eddie, Amarones are sometimes "tight" and require a few years of cellaring to open up, sometimes up to a decade. He's a big fan of the 2011s as, in his opinion, they're at a good point of drinkability and don't require a great deal of time in the cellar before softening up. I got all wrapped up in the conversation that I didn't grab an adequate picture of the wine itself. But if you're interested in trying this for yourself, we carry a 750mL bottle at D'Vines for $49.99. It's a fine Thanks to D'Vines owner George Aguilar for picking up this bottle for our shindig!