1999 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella Superiore Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta

Romano Dal Forno’s Valpolicella bottling regularly shows an intensity, muscularity, and length which most Amarone cannot match, and the 1999 Valpolicella Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta, though not at the enviable level which this wine reaches in warmer, less rainy vintages, is still pretty impressive stuff. Potent and penetrating in aroma, with ample and ripe notes of plums, blackberries, and black cherries, it is a strapping, deep, and sustained wine which needs to shed a bit of its youthful exuberance and untamed force. When it does, the score could well seem unnecessarily prudent. Drink: 2006-2015. Importer: Vias Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 629-0200