2011 Amarone della Valpolicella

80% Corvina Veronese, Corvinone, 20% Rondinella. Lena di Mezzo is an entirely terraced estate of 17.8 ha in the heart of Fumane, a hilly zone with tufaceous clay and limestone soils. Average altitude 250-350 m above sea level. Only the pergola training system is used, with a maximum yield of 10,000-11,000 kg/ha. Harvested mid October, after the grapes had started to dry on the vine. This drying process then continues in crates in a special drying area, under controlled conditions of humidity and at natural winter temperatures for 90-130 days, until the concentration of sugars in the grapes has reached at least 28%-30%. Gentle crushing and destemming of the grapes takes place, depending on the vintage, between the end of January and late February, and fermentation in small, temperature-controlled truncated cone-shaped stainless-steel vats is started off by indigenous yeasts. The fermentation is a slow one, with long maceration on the skins in order to allow for maximum extraction of the typical complex aromatic and polyphenolic components. Surprisingly, this smells younger than the 2012. More black spice (Nigella, roast cumin, roast coriander seeds) and sticky cooked plums rather than prunes. But on the palate, prunes come forward. Prunes and Turkish coffee. Pomegranate molasses. Charred rosemary. Lavender and coal. Cinnamon sticks and allspice. Dark and deep and glowing. And, as I have found with all these Monte del Frá wines, that bold, unerring seam of freshness: like a ventilation shaft deep in a mountain mine. (TC)