Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG

The father of Amarone. Historically, the Valpolicella region was famous for sweet wines; Amarone was merely a “Recioto scappato” (a Recioto that “escaped” and fermented dry). This is a sweet red wine made from Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella grapes dried on bamboo racks (arelle) for 100-120 days.

The Terroir The best grapes for Recioto come from the “recie” (ears)—the upper shoulders of the bunch that receive the most sunlight and have the highest sugar concentration. The limestone soils of the Classico zone provide the necessary acidity to keep this massive sugar content from becoming cloying.

How It Is Made The drying is the whole wine. Selected bunches go onto racks in the fruttaio in late September and stay there until January or February, losing 40–50% of their weight to evaporation and concentrating sugar, acid, tannin and flavour together. Fermentation is then arrested — historically by winter cold, now usually by chilling and racking — while substantial residual sugar remains, typically leaving the wine between 12 and 14% alcohol with 60–100 grams of sugar per litre. Nothing is added and nothing is fortified: everything in the glass came off the vine. Amarone is made by exactly the same method and simply allowed to finish, which is why the sweet wine is the older of the two and the dry one the accident.

The Critical Take A “meditation wine” of immense history. Unlike the modern trend for dry wines, this preserves the ancient Roman preference for sweet reds. It smells of cherry jam, violets, and chocolate. It is a dessert in itself.

At the Table The Veronese answer is uncompromising: Recioto with pandoro at Christmas, or with dark chocolate, which it is one of very few wines able to handle. Beyond that, dried fruit and nut tarts, aged Monte Veronese, and blue cheese — Gorgonzola in particular. Serve at 16–18°C in a small glass. An opened bottle keeps well for a week in the fridge, which matters for a wine nobody finishes in one sitting.

The Sparkling Version A small quantity of Recioto is still made spumante, refermented to leave it sweet and lightly sparkling. It is a historical curiosity now, but it was once common in the Valpolicella and remains the local match for the Christmas table. Production of Recioto in any form is tiny, since the same dried fruit is worth considerably more as Amarone, and a number of estates have stopped making it altogether.

Benchmark Producers Giuseppe Quintarelli (the absolute legend), Lorenzo Begali, Tommaso Bussola, Allegrini.