1988 Recioto della Valpolicella

The 1988 Recioto is a mindboggling effort from Dal Forno Romano. After the grapes were air-dried for six months on straw mats, this wine was aged three years in 100% new French oak casks. Although outrageously expensive, it represents the essence of this style of wine. It is off-dry rather than sweet, with a dark garnet color, and a nose of smoke, prunes, over-ripe plums, hickory wood, and chocolate. Extremely full-bodied and exceptionally rich, with some residual sugar, this wine has been blazingly well-defined by its sojourn in new oak casks. Remarkably, the wine has soaked up its eighteen months in new oak as there is not a hint of vanillin or pain grille notes in either its aromas or flavors. This legendary Recioto should drink well for 2-3 decades. Readers who follow the Italian wine scene must argue incessantly over who makes the greatest wines of Veneto - Quintarelli or Dal Forno Romano? Both are at the top of their game, producing spectacular wines that are reference points for an area of northeast Italy that is beginning to show signs of awakening from a long period of moribund mediocrity. Importer: Vias Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 629-0200