2013 Guerrieri Rizzardi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 3Cru 750 ml

An Invitation to La Dolce Vita

If you ever get a chance to visit Verona, make sure to set aside some time for an afternoon visit to the immaculately manicured, 18th-century garden where the famed Guerrieri Rizzardi winery conducts its tastings.

Expect the spread at your table—set amidst lemon trees and mythological statues—to include hunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, slices of paper-thin Prosciutto di Parma, and homemade, thick-crust bread drenched in olive oil made fresh from Rizzardi’s olive groves. But neither we, nor the high-flying collectors who make the trek to Guerrieri Rizzardi each year, come for the antipasti. No, we come for the Amarone, the hauntingly beautiful, impossibly concentrated, noble red featuring show-stopping complexity and intensity.

Those spots in the garden are getting much harder to come by these days, and the bottles are disappearing faster than ever stateside too. When we first released this wine in January, it sold out in six hours.

In 2009, a Guerrieri Rizzardi Amarone made history, becoming the first-ever Amarone to secure “Best Red Wine of Italy” honors from Gambero Rosso. Since then, Guerrieri Rizzardi has not looked back. The 2013 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 3Cru follows in the footsteps of its esteemed older sibling, for being a “delicious example” of Amarone “with an intense red fruit, raisin and spice nose,” according to Decanter. Sourced from three top crus in Valpolicella Classico the 2013 offers uncanny depth, concentration, and pedigree, for $39. Perfect next to a rack of lamb or a generous wedge of hard cheese.

Amarone is a singular wine, made from a unique process that results in intense, concentrated reds with incredible longevity, and an inimitable potpourri of flavors. Unlike most red wines, the grapes behind Amarone don’t go instantly from the fields to the cellar. Instead, they’re painstakingly dried—bunch by bunch—over the course of three months. As the grapes’ water content evaporates, their flavors intensify, transforming simple red berry fruits into flavors and aromatics redolent of cured Amarena cherries, raspberry jam, blueberry compote, espresso, sage, and more. Fermentation takes an entire month, allowing an incredible depth of flavor to develop alongside an abundantly rich texture. The aging that follows is likewise slow, lending Amarone spicy, oak-driven complexity across the palate.

With every sip of Rizzardi’s 3Cru, you’ll find another inexplicable (but delicious) aroma or flavor, all resulting from the terroir of the three vineyards behind this blend, coupled with this incredible process. Dried cherry, blueberry compote, sage, fennel, and leather are only a handful of the nuances that emerge from the glass after a lengthy decant.

If you’re new to Amarone, take it from us, there is no better introduction to this Italian classic. If you’re a seasoned veteran, well, you’ve likely already hit “buy.” Enjoy.