Cramming your nose into this you can’t HELP but miss Veneto terribly. Skunky funk churns out of the glass, a tangy vegetal earthiness reeking of Italy and classic winemaking techniques. Soiled boot and green weediness lay strongly on concentrated fruit and bright aging. Amber-garnet in the glass with plentiful brick, its mindboggling they make 7000 cases of this incredible ripasso.
The earthiness never really blows off: it’s a stained, muddy elixir rife with acid with not a single slutty moment in view. I’ve often been hard on ripasso for clunky heavy-handidness, but that criticism does not exist here. Sharp and bright, while still careful on the foundations of the style, moderate of alcohol and aching with structure. Easily one of the stellar producers of modern wine in the region, it neither sways to the Super-Tuscan/California/Bordeaux over-yummy ideals mareketing craves for OR abrasive rusticity many versions display. The fruit-funk melange continues far into the finish and this bottle is a classic for decades to come.
2019 GUERRIERI RIZZARDI ‘Pojega’ Corvina & friends (10% MT) Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore DOC Veneto 14.5
Stephen McConnell 