Bertani 1964 @ Vinitaly 2011…

Throughout my WSET studies, I was always surprised by how little attention Amarone received from the curriculum. Even the Master of Wine exams featured Amarone only twice in the last 11 years... Perhaps, it is because Amarone was not at the top of Italy's quality classification (DOCG) until 2008. Or perhaps, there was, until the early 2000s, too little produced? Nevertheless, few outside Italy seem familiar with this beautiful and unique wine style...It is a pity because there is no reason why it should not be considered among the top...

Especially after tasting Bertani's Amarone 1964. My tasting it at Vinitaly last week firmly put it on my top 5 favourite wines of all times...and confirmed, to me at least, the potential for Amarone to be among Italy's, if not the world's, finest...

Bertani is reputed to be a traditionalist. Minimal intervention, restraint, seeking finesse and elegance rather than power and concentration... And it showed in the wine.

First, the colour was terrific, garnet core gently and almost imperceptibly fading into a wide tawny rim...the nose was beautiful, delicious, and mouth-watering with incredible complexity. Precisely the type of bouquet one envisions when one cellar a wine for so long... It was savoury, musky, gamey, yet full of dried fruits and spices... It was intriguing, engaging, and mesmerizing... On the palate, incredibly smooth and silky with a perfect balance. It was juicy, delicious, and savory. I only wanted to keep it on the palate to let that sensation last for as long as it could... Once taken in, it lasted forever, with a fantastic peacock tail finish, exploding with yet more complexity... All of this with finesse, elegance, subtlety, pedigree, and class...

A fantastic experience...even if it was in the middle of a trade show at the end of a long day...