Dried grapes, good wine
I sometimes wonder what inspired the first Veneto winemaker who mused, “Hmmm. What if we dried all these grapes before we make them into wine?”
This concept probably went against the conventional wisdom. The idea of pressing fresh grapes into delicious juice, then fermenting them with yeast to make the beverage we all know and love, has been around for at least 8,000 years.
And the Italian procedure called “appassimento,” (“withering” or “fading”) – the process of air-drying grapes before pressing them and fermenting the juice – goes back at least as far as the Roman Empire.
What’s the point? It’s pretty simple: Drying the grapes concentrates the sugars and acids in the few drops of juice that remain within each shriveled, raisin-like fruit. This yields a finished wine with fuller body, higher alcoholic content, and greater complexity.
Dried Corvina grapes destined for Amarone. Image from What is Amarone wine? in Decanter magazine, June 3, 2021.
Northern Italian winemakers have taken advantage of that natural sugar to make a sweet wine – most notably the Veneto’s Recioto della Valpolicella – for 2,000 years. It was only in the early 20th century, though, that they began producing its dry, powerful, and complex sibling, Amarone della Valpolicella.
Amarone has become a sought-after wine that most often retails in the range of $50 to $100 and beyond, a significant multiple of the price of the region’s popular, light, and quaffable Valpolicella.
Amarone, like Valpolicella, is made primarily from the regional Corvina variety and other indigenous Northeastern Italian grapes.
But it didn’t take long for Veneto producers, much like their cousins in Tuscany, to wonder, “what would happen if we blended our native grapes with some fruit from … other places?”
Behold, this week’s featured wine, an intense and complex result of the appassimento process applied to a blend of Corvina and Merlot. “Gran Passione” Veneto Rosso is an impressive wine in the Veneto style, and best of all, it retails for an average $14 list price at U.S. wine shops.
Today’s Tasting Report
Casa Vinicola Botter 2023 “Gran Passione” Veneto Rosso ($13.99)
A blend of 60% Merlot and 40% of the local red Veneto grape Corvina, “Gran Passione” Veneto Rosso is made in the style of the Veneto’s iconic Amarone, but it builds intensity by leaving the grapes on the vines to air-dry before pressing. Then, as with the region’s Ripasso wines, they leave the pressed skins in the juice after fermentation to yield still more concentration. The result is a dark ruby wine with appealing scents of black cherries and ripe berries with grace notes of dried fruit and a hint of dried plums. Ripe cherry-berry flavors and subtle oaky spice follow, framed by firm, food-friendly acidity and soft tannins. 14% alcohol doesn’t intrude. U.S. importer: Winesellers Ltd., Niles, Ill. (June 23, 2025)
FOOD MATCH: The producer suggests pairing it with roasted red meats, game, stews, or mature hard cheeses. It worked very well, too, with a plant-based dish of deeply roasted mushrooms with cream over cavatappi pasta.
WHEN TO DRINK: It’s just fine right now and likely won’t benefit from extended aging, but this relatively recent vintage should be fine if kept under good cellar conditions through at least 2028.
VALUE:
It’s an excellent value at my local $14 price, which matches Wine-Searcher.com’s $14 average U.S. retail. Wine-Searcher’s U.S. vendor prices range from $10 to $23, so consumer discretion is advisable.
WEB LINK:
Read about Botter Gran Passione, with links to technical information, at this importer’s link
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for “Gran Passione” Veneto Rosso on Wine-Searcher.com.
Read about Northeastern Italy’s Veneto region at this Wine-Searcher link.
This Wine-Searcher link offers more information about Casa Vinicola Botter, producer of Gran Passione.
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I need to try those corvina grapes
When I visited Santi's fruttaio a few years ago I noted a large research poster on the wall showing data they'd collected about the grape's trajectory over the drying period. Moisture drops and acidity rises, but interestingly malic acid actually falls, from 3.0 g/L to .5g/L. So, Amarone is one of the few red wines that do not go through malolactic.