I’ve been eyeing this bottle over the last couple of months and the time to uncork it finally came last Friday when two Italian-centric clients walked in with ‘something different’ in mind.
Well, the 2001 Romano Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore “Vigneto di monte Lodoletta’ certainly fits the bill.
The wine was a rocking straight out of the bottle! The nose’ intense perfume initially filled the room with upfront fruit (wild raspberry, black cherry jam) with dried lavender and toffee undertones. This was backed by a rich, dense, and concentrated palate that showed some grip in the firmer, dry finish. With air, the wine displayed even more complexity; additional notes of clove, dried herbs (sage/bay leaf), and underbrush then turning spicier. As I swirled and sniffed this wine, I thought, “This is so easy to mistake this wine as a very good, youthful Napa Cabernet.” Valpolicella is traditionally a blend of three grapes: Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara (this last one is increasingly being phased out).
Romano Dal Forno is one of the benchmark producers of Valpolicella and is widely credited for showing the possibility of producing superior, quality wines from outside the Classico zone. The winery employs modern technology to improve the quality of their wines without sacrificing typicity. For instance, Dal Forno has built this super modern, computerized drying rooms that help control temperature and humidity. The winery likewise ages their wines in new French barriques instead of the traditional Slavonian oak casks.