2012 Amarone della Valpolicella

This is the first vintage made under the current winemaking team. When I look back to 2012, I remember thickly concentrated, fruit-forward wines that were made after a very hot summer that saw dry winds blow north from Africa over much of Italy. Generally speaking, the wines embraced monolithic elements with lots of black fruit at the base. However, the Bertani 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella offers surprising complexity and depth with neatly compact fruit flavors. It shows a pretty garnet appearance with dried cherry aromas, cedar and light smoke, and you definitely taste minerality and crushed stone.