2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva Fieramonte
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Fieramonte captivates. It opens with a minty freshness complicated by hints of tangerine and dill, giving way to mentholated black cherries and a dusting of cocoa. This is cool-toned and sleek, with a measured inner sweetness and racy acidity to balance. Polished red and blue fruits sweep across the palate with ease, leaving a bitter tinge of espresso and mocha that resonates toward the close. Tactile mineral tones ground the experience to the earth just as a web of fine-grained tannins settles in, leaving a classically dry tension. The 2016 finishes with tremendous length and potency. Allegrini continues to take the Fieramonte to new heights, and while many producers in Valpolicella prefer their 2015s over their 2016s, I must say, the balance here is otherworldly. This is not to be missed.
Critic scores
Average Score
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Eric Guido, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The Allegrini 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Fieramonte is skewed tight and buttoned up in terms of its intensity and its consistency. This balance is quite an achievement, and of course, we have the fabulous 2016 vintage to celebrate here. A year with classic weather patterns and no major challenges, the wine offers black cherry, plum, spice, leather and cured tobacco. The results are modern and contemporary with smooth tannins and a generous, full-weight finish. I love the seamless quality of this cellar-worthy wine. The alcohol is high at 16.5%, and only 5,000 bottles were made (hitting the market in fall 2023).
Full bottle 1,471 g. Certified sustainable (3E Equalitas Sustainable Winery). 45% Corvina, 45% Corvinone, 5% Rondinella, 5% Oseleta. From a single vineyard named Fieramonte at 415 m, facing south-east, on clay and pebbles, rich in iron and magnesium. Grapes are dried in Allegrini’s state-of-the-art drying facility for four months, losing 40–45% of their weight. After a soft pressing, the wine ferments in steel tanks and ages in new barriques for 48 months, in tanks for six months and in bottle for about 12 months. RS 3.6 g/l, pH 3.5. Smells of prunes and pot pourri, dried cranberries and soft cigar smoke. Concentration and power, but it carries its alcohol with gravitas and the sweetness comes from the integrity of the fruit, not residual sugar. Black-pepper and nutmeg spiciness. Autumn leaves, a trace of bonfire, damsons. Deep tannins woven through the fruit. Layers and layers of complexity, throat-warming alcohol, but the wine finishes fresh with head held high. (TC)
A cooler year in a recent context. This cuvée (single vineyard) was made from 1965 to 1985, before the vineyard was infected with esca. The vineyard was then rejuvenated and the Fieramonte was revived from 2011. A rich, avuncular, throaty wine after four years in 225L barriques. The grapes are dried for 130–140 days, which is very long, even in the context of the region. Loads of residual sugar at the initial spontaneous fermentation, before inoculation drags it to a palate-staining dryness. A big wine loaded with extract, dark fruits, menthol and anise. Very impressive. Drink or hold.