Dal Forno Amarone Tasting back to the 1999 Vintage

Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.

THOMAS FULLER

And if I drowned in wine, I can think of none better than Amarone!!

This is annual event here at the Wine Watch. We show the wines of these two producers every year at a "Once in a Lifetime" tasting event and then every other year we show them against each other.   

The styles are dramatically different between Dal Forno and Quintarelli but they both make Amarone at the top level of quality and both sacrifice quantity over quality.  They are also very expensive but the price reflects the demand for these wines in the marketplace.

Dal Forno is a bit more progressive thinking aging his wines in new French Oak and making a dryer style of Amarone by not drying the grapes for as long as Quintarelli.

Join us as we experience some of the top vintages for this region and some of the most sought-after wines from the Veneto in an all out battle over who's wine reigns supreme- the godfather of Verona, Giuseppe Quintarelli or the new kid on the block, Romano Dal Forno.

Toni Lampasone will be making a special menu to accompany the wines. The fee for this "Once in a Lifetime" wine tasting event is $495 + tax for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com. 

Dal Forno Amarone Wine Tasting

Saturday, July 19th

7:30 pm

2018 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella

2018 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

2017 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

2016 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

2009 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

2008 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

2006 Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella

1999 Dal Forno Romano Vigneto Monte Lodoletta Amarone della Valpolicella

Menu

Selection of Cheese: St. Andre, Blue Cheese, Beemster Gouda

Hudson Valley Foie Gras Sauteed with Cherry Reduction and wilted Greens

Amarone Pasta with Reggiano Parmesan and Speck

Braised Beef Shortrib with Amarone Mole reduction

Cheesecake with Amarena Cherries and Recioto reduction

The price for this tasting which includes dinner is $495 + tax for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail:  andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and chef Toni will be happy to accommodate you. 

A bit about Romano Dal Forno

A few years ago the last day of the Vinitaly we left early to go see one of the producers that does not show his wines at the fair- Romano Dal Forno.   We just happened to be doing a tasting with this producers wine in a few weeks after my return, so I was anxious to learn more about this producer from the horse’s mouth.

Although Romano’s wines have become some of the most sought after in all of Italy, there are not many people that know a lot about them, many people believe that he was a pupil of the great Giuseppe Quintarelli.  Well it is true that Dal Forno is a good friend of Quintarelli and that it was Giuseppe’s passion for winemaking that inspired Romano to get into the wine business, however he never worked for Quintarelli like so many wine experts have claimed.  Romano’s family had been land owners in Valpolicella for several generations and they owned vineyards, but they had always sold their grapes to other producers.  Romano never went to enology school, he is a self taught winemaker, his first vintage was 1983 and over the course of the next few he quickly became one of the rising stars of this area. 

His approach to making Amarone is very different from Quintarelli and collectors usually will like one or the other rather than both.  Quintarelli dries his grapes for upwards of six months before crushing them.  This causes the resulting wines to be rather sweet in style.  Romano prefers the taste of dryer wines so he only leaves his grapes to dry for one to two months, thus the resulting wines are fairly dry in style.

When you walk down to the cellar, the stairs are made of white marble tile that has been tumbled so that the surface is not slippery, everything that Romano does is well thought out, he is a perfectionist and it shows in his cellar and in his wines.  The brick work on the ceilings of the cellar is a mosaic and really makes the cellar one of the most attractive that you will encounter.  The barrles are stained in the centers so you will not notice the drippings from topping off.  It seems like every little detail has been thought out.

His greatest recent vintages are:  1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, and the 2004 which is still in barrique.  The Valpolicella is one of the most concentrated and rich that you will encounter and is rich enough that it could be mistaken for Amarone.  The magical elixir, Recioto was declassified in 2003 because it failed the tasting panel from the DOC and will from this vintage on be simply entitled late harvest with the name of the vineyard, Vigna Sere.  There are two tests that Valpolicella, Amarone and Recioto have to pass before they are allowed to carry the DOC title.  One is a chemical analysis that measures both the sugar content and the grape varietals.  The second is a physical tasting that the DOC panel conducts to ensure that the wine resembles the style of wines that are produced in this area.  The Recioto in 2003 passed the chemical analysis but the tasting panel failed this wine for being to astringent, this may have angered Dal Forno as he stated that this wine will no longer be submitted for DOC status. 

We were like kids in a candy store during our visit as the exuberant wine producer showed us his newest wines that were still in barrique.  Romano is very passionate about his wines and you could tell that he was glad to have a group of his fans in his home to learn more about what makes this producers wines so unique.

His journey stared with the 1983 vintage and every vintage he has continued to improve his wines by making progress in the vineyard as well as developing new techniques in the winery.  He began a complete renovation and expansion of the winery in 2005 and it was completed by the end of 2007 just in time for the harvest.  One of the things that he stresses is cleanliness.  Some producers of Amarone like to have a bit of "Noble Rot" in their wines.  Romano feels that there is nothing noble about rot, therefore he goes to every extreme to ensure that there is none in his cellar.  The new facility has a series of fans to circulate the air in the cellar so there is very little moisture, which is one of the largest contributors to the formation of mold in the cellar.

Any great producer will tell you that great wine is made in the vineyard and Dal Forno is no exception to this rule.  Dal Forno spends a lot of time tending his vines and has planted several new acres of vines to increase the size of his production which now hovers at around 20,000 cases of the four wines.