Why it tastes like this
Why does Recioto della Valpolicella taste like that?
The sweet original from which Amarone accidentally descended — dried Corvina grapes, fermentation stopped early.
These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Recioto della Valpolicella as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.
The grape
What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?
Corvina
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity and medium-full body. Commonly associated with sour cherry, red plum, almond, dried fig.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Corvinone
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity and medium-full body. Commonly associated with sour cherry, dried herbs, plum.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Rondinella
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity. Commonly associated with red cherry, herbs.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Place and climate
What did the growing season do to the fruit?
Valpolicella: continental influence
AssociationA wide day–night temperature range is associated with better acid retention, because cool nights slow the respiration that consumes malic acid while warm days continue to ripen the fruit.
Not claiming: That altitude or continentality guarantees high acidity. Both widen diurnal range on average and neither determines the outcome.
Winemaking
What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?
Appassimento (drying grapes)
MechanismDrying harvested grapes removes water, concentrating sugar, acid and phenolics. Higher starting sugar yields higher alcohol, and fermentation may stop before the sugar is used up.
Not claiming: That all appassimento wines are sweet. Amarone is fermented dry or nearly so; Recioto is not.
Arrested fermentation
ConventionStopping fermentation early to leave natural sugar in the wine.
Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.
Age
What changes after the wine is bottled?
Development in bottle
TendencyTwenty years or more. The sweet ancestor of Amarone, made from the same dried grapes with the fermentation stopped, and the residual sugar preserves it as reliably as it does any great sweet wine.
Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.
Follow it up
Style
Recioto della Valpolicella
The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.
Science
Why wine is like this
The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.
Myths
What people get wrong
Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) — Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
- Italian DOP and IGP wine register — Ministero dell’agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF)
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
- Wines of Argentina / Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura — Wines of Argentina; INV
- Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella — Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella
- WSET educational materials and the Systematic Approach to Tasting — Wine & Spirit Education Trust