2018 Antiche Terre Amarone della Valpolicella 750 ml

Mannerly and majestic, Antiche Terre is more than an awesome expression of Amarone della Valpolicella: It’s BY FAR our top-selling Amarone of all time. Every time we offer it, Wine Access members snatch it up like they’re going underground for a few decades—and we don’t blame them one bit.

Balancing the herbaceous intensity and bittersweet elegance characteristic of this purely Italian style, the 2018 is an exemplar of the category at a price that you seldom see for Amarone of this quality. Ideal for the dinner table yet fit for a decade in the cellar, this is one of the smartest Italian-red deals out there.

Antiche Terre Venete is located in the Valpantena subregion of Valpolicella, where meticulously terraced vineyards sit in an amphitheater that provides ideal sun exposure. The estate dates back to the early 1900s, when Vittorio Sancassasi began cultivating vines along the hillsides that have typically produced superior grapes in the region.

Today, his descendant Luciano Sancassani carries on the family’s heritage. Together with another local family scion, Riccardo Degani, Sancassani tends 123 acres of Corvina, Rondinella, and Corvinone—the classic trio for Amarone. Creating this wine requires sacrifice, patience, and a know-how that’s been passed from generation to generation. 

That’s because of the exacting process required to make Amarone. After hand-harvesting, the team dries the grapes for three to four months in special humidity-controlled lofts to avoid rot. The drying intensifies everything: sugars, aromas, flavors, and—crucially, to maintain balance—acids. After the grapes have lost a third of their water volume, the winemaking begins. The result is a monumental level of concentration that you’ll struggle to find elsewhere in Europe.