The next producer we visited was a far more pleasant surprise than the one in my previous post.
Le Bertarole, that is Giordano Venturini and his two sons, of which Marco Venturini is now the winemaker in charge.
Only a few minutes of talking to him (he speaks excellent English, by the way) will convince you of the sincerity of their commitment to high quality. As they are a small producer, with about 9 hectars of vineyards but only the winery capacity for about 10,000 bottles output, this seems like a good approach.
A new, bigger winery has just finished construction, and they are currently in between buildings: fermenting and barrelling in the old, drying in the new.
(the new winery)Marco Venturini seems like a wine fanatic in the most positive sense. A note on the estate's door informs you that if he is not here, he is close by in Fumane and you should just give him a call on his cell phone and he'll be right by.
As he told us, "at night I dream of new things to do with the Amarone". That this is more than a hollow phrase becomes obvious when you look at the attention to detail that is evident in the winery and in talking to the winemaker.
(Marco Venturini, winemaker)The new winery, a building of function, not flash, has its cellar 12 meters underground and will maximize the use of gravity for moving the wine, an approach rarely found with all but the biggest and best producers.
He also swears by cement vats for fermentation and even aging, as the cement mantle is already the perfect temperature control - cool in summer, isolating in winter. Some winemakers cultivate old school techniques for the sake of it. Venturini, on the other hand, does so out of careful consideration for the outcome.
(cement fermentation vats in front of the old winery)New international grape varieties do not find their way into the wines of Le Bertarole. But that is not to say that they are shunning them out of local pride: they owned Cabernet Sauvignon vines before and experimented with them privately. However, as Marco Venturini pointed out simply and elegantly, "the best Cabernets are from France". The Valpolicella's claim to fame are Corvina & co, and these are the ones who receive the attention here. Things are similar with the increasingly popular white Passito: Le Bertarole are trying it out, but seem in no rush to put out a product they cannot back one hundred percent.
(the vineyard between the two wineries)When the vineyards of Le Bertarole are picked over the course of October, they are among the last in the region to pull in the harvest, and all grapes are brought in by members of the extended family. It might very well be this steady handed approach that lets Marco Venturini declare 2008 to be an excellent vintage with great concentration, wheras most other producers we have talked to considered it to be merely a good year; not as great as 2007.
(the new cellar)The wines, on the other hand, are only released when ready, with 2003 being the current vintage for Ripasso and Amarone, all in numbered bottles.
If the tasting room we moved on to seemed especially cozy (complete with crackling wood fire), it did so with good reason, as it was essentially the family's living room, just another sign of the hospitality you will receive at Le Bertarole.
(the tasting room)Unfortunately, I am faced with a complete lack of tasting notes for the four wines - Valpolicella Classico, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto. That should, however, not at all be taken as a sign that the wines are forgettable!
Quite the contrary, the Classico 2007 is as fresh and lively as they come, and the Ripasso firm but elegant. Even though Venturini considers the Amarone his favorite and pinnacle, the Recioto is no lesser accomplishment. The Amarone is a truly great wine with years and years to go and greatly improving with aeration. Not that it is tight now, but it possesses a depth of complexity between the classic Amarone notes and subtle tertiary aromas that are beginning to develop which will benefit from air and cellaring. I will post thorough tasting notes at later dates when I've opened the bottles. We will see if patience can win out over the desire to taste these wines again.
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