Pieropan Vigna Garzon Amarone della Valpolicella 2016

Pieropan is a fourth-generation family estate founded in Soave in 1880, best known for its historic white wines but also for its long-standing project in Valpolicella. Vigna Garzon comes from the Monte Garzon vineyard at Cellore d’Illasi, in the eastern Valpolicella, where the vines are planted at around 300–500 metres on a south-facing site. The vineyard has pink limestone soils rich in clay and chalk, giving the naturally powerful Amarone a useful mineral freshness. The vineyard is organically certified, with manual selection and harvesting central to the production. The 2016 vintage produced a particularly structured Vigna Garzon, with ripe fruit and concentration balanced by the freshness characteristic of this elevated, limestone-rich site.

Pieropan Vigna Garzon Amarone 2016 is made from the traditional Valpolicella varieties. The grapes are hand harvested into small crates before being naturally dried for around two to three months, concentrating their sugars, flavours and acidity. After manual selection, the grapes are destemmed and crushed, then fermented at around 23–24°C with daily pumping over and punching down. The wine is matured in French oak, with approximately 80% tonneaux and 20% barriques, for around 30 months, followed by further bottle ageing. It is rich and deeply coloured, with black cherry, blackberry and plum alongside dark chocolate, leather, coffee, black pepper, cinnamon and balsamic notes. The palate is powerful and rounded but retains impressive freshness, with fine tannins and a long, savoury finish. It is particularly suited to braised or grilled meats, game, rich winter dishes and mature, strongly flavoured cheeses, and has the structure to develop further with bottle age.