Bolla

J

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
1995 Bolla Amarone della Valpolicella - Prior to several bottles of Bertani '97's, I had no experience with amarone. Based on palate changes and palate memory (not to mention price) I wrote the style off. Was gifted this bottle and so I'm shocked at how good this is. I know zero about the producer. 14% and it shows it's light weight well (so to speak). There's no raisin here, this is vibrant, alive wine, and all it's own. Smokey, brothy nose, wonderful acidity, fruit is fresh, not dried, unobtrusive. This, to me, is classic old school Italy at it's best. Did I just receive a flukey, good bottle or what? No matter...it's fuckin' great.

Waiting for those in the know to weigh in...
 
Bolla is a mainstream producer and you can find their wines in a lot of supermarkets. In the late eighties and early nineties when I bought most of my wine in supermarkets I sometimes found their Bardolino more palatable than other wines at the pricepoint (under $10). No reason their Amarone couldn't have been good in '95 though.
 
Thanks for the info, Steven. Sometimes it's good to not know what one is drinking, and check later. This was a very good bottle....probably due to several lucky convergences. What really surprised me was it's depth/vibrancy ratio as a wine....then again I don't know amarone at all, so it might be insipid to amarone freaks. As a red wine, it rocked solidly.
 
joel--bardolino and barolo are, within italy, far, far apart. one is northeastern italy (bardolino--grapes, primarly corvina, rondinella, and molinara) and one is northwestern italy (barolo--the grape there is nebbiolo).

be that as it may, good to hear that the wine was enjoyable and was fodder for thinking about the pleasures of what's in the glass. rocking solidly is what it's all about.

cheers.
 
Thanks, Robert....must have been a Freudian slip. I did mean amarone, but for some reason barolo came out of my mouth...post amended.
 
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