Several days ago I wrote a quickie about a "ripasso" from the Verona area, Zeni Costalago, which is made from 100% Corvinone. I mentioned that it didn't seem very ripasso-like to me, although it was a pleasant everyday sort of wine.
Well, according to what Gabrio Tosti, of the LES wine shop De Vino, it isn't. Gabrio sent me an email today, which reads, in part, as follows:
For the ripasso up to last year there was not a law describing the ripasso method.
Originally and by law now the ripasso method is, in December after pressing the grape for the amarone, the left overs are poured into the valpolicella juices. The sugars left in the amarone skins will activate a second fermentation (ripasso).
Some others and before last year law were considering ripasso adding a percentage of the amarone wine into the Valpolicella. The Zeni cannot be called ripasso because is not a Valpolicella.
Interesting and news to me. I would like to ask Lizzy and others from the veronese to comment on this.
Just to add some more hints, please have a look at this post I wrote last january:
http://www.aristide.biz/2006/01/valpolicella_ri.html
(sorry, it's in italian...).
Ciao.
Posted by: Giampiero alias Aristide | October 19, 2006 at 04:02 AM
I had forgotten all about this one. Thanks for the reminder, Giampiero.
Posted by: Terry Hughes | October 19, 2006 at 07:08 AM
Terry, it's all true. But Costalago isn't Corvinone 100% (other wine "Cruino" is!): the grapes are corvina, corvinone, merlot and cabernet. It's a blend, and for italian law, an IGT (indicazione geografica tipica). See the web site www.zeni.it.
"Ripasso" is only for Valpolicella, but a lot of producers use this method...in silence!
Posted by: Lizzy | October 19, 2006 at 10:10 AM
Lizzy, I should have read my own post -- of course it isn't 100% Corvinone. I was very tired when I wrote this, unfortunately.
I like your "in slience" phrase, which calls to mind another practice that has been verboten -- trucioli! (Chips.)
Posted by: Terry Hughes | October 19, 2006 at 12:39 PM
Well, Terry, now chips are allowed in italian (and European) wines, too...
someone says me "that's the progress, baby" but I don't agree...
for me it's a decline. Am I wrong?
Posted by: Lizzy | October 19, 2006 at 02:56 PM
Yes, because it is progress. Just as deposing Saddam Hussein and replacing him with a civil war was progress.
Posted by: Terry Hughes | October 19, 2006 at 04:41 PM