One thing we sommeliers are guilty of is restlessness: There’s always this insatiable need to find the shiniest, newest thing. In the world of Italian wine, with its endless supply of indigenous grape varieties, the opportunities for restless exploration abound. You’ll find today’s wine adventurers on the slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily, or the stone terraces of Valtellina, in Lombardy, but you won’t find many of them in Valpolicella, the wine epicenter of the Veneto—even though a classic Valpolicella red is perfectly suited to our current moment in wine.
The wine-consuming public has embraced lighter-weight, lightly oaked (or unoaked) reds. Refreshing, unadorned wines are trendy, which is news that should be as welcome to producers of Valpolicella as it has been to producers of Cru Beaujolais. Valpolicella has its heyday a long time ago, and many Italian wine lovers moved on. But I’ve been drawn back by the stellar lineup of wines at Rubinelli Vajol, and especially by this pitch-perfect example of Valpolicella Classico. There’s no dried fruit in this wine; it’s not trying to be “baby Amarone.” This is about bright fruit and a refreshing, food-friendly twang of acidity—the classic Italian profile, cleaned up but not “made up.” If you haven’t been back in a while, today’s 2017 is a great way to get re-acquainted with the charms of Valpolicella.
In the ’60s and ’70s, Valpolicella, along with its neighbor, Soave, was a commercial juggernaut. And, as in Soave, the boundaries of the original Valpolicella wine zone—the Valpolicella Classico—were expanded so that production could be increased to keep up with demand. Quantity over quality became the name of the game in Valpolicella, although it was also home to artisanal holdouts like the late Giuseppe Quintarelli, whose eclectic range of wines at least kept Valpolicella in the conversation among serious wine aficionados.
Situated just north of Verona (one of the most beautiful small cities in Italy, by the way), Valpolicella is one of Italy’s most historic terroirs—especially Valpolicella Classico, a band of north-south valleys that spill down towards Verona from the Monte Lessini, which are part of the eastern Alps (and form part of a natural border with the Trentino region). At the western edge of the Valpolicella Classico are the Adige River and Lake Garda, with vineyards spread over the hills of the Fumane, Marano, and Negrar Valleys, all of which run south to the Adige, which makes an abrupt turn east at Verona on its way to the Adriatic.
Rubinelli Vajol is so named for the Rubinelli family and the small hamlet of Vajol, right in the heart of the Classico zone. Soils here are a mix of calcareous (i.e. limestone-infused) clay and marl with pockets of basalt rock from ancient volcanic activity, with vineyards planted to the traditional grape varieties of the zone: Corvina (the principal grape in this blend), Rondinella, Molinara, Corvinone, and Oseleta. The Rubinelli Vajol property was originally acquired as a country retreat by Gaetano Rubinelli, an engineer who helped build the Chievo Dam, a hydroelectric plant on the Adige River, in the 1920s. The current generation of Rubinellis make just five traditional wines from 10 hectares of vineyards: the sweet, dried-grape Recioto della Valpolicella; its dry, dried-grape sibling, Amarone; Valpolicella Ripasso; and two classic Valpolicellas. Today’s bright, un-oaked ’17 would qualify as the estate’s entry-level bottling, combining 45% Corvina with 35% Corvinone, 15% Rondinella, and 5% Molinara.
In the glass, the wine is a translucent ruby-red moving to pink at the rim, with lifted aromas of sour cherries, red currant, pomegranate, cranberry, black pepper, dried flowers, and dusty earth. It is on the lighter side of medium-bodied, with a mouthwatering tang that makes you crave food (and prompts me to serve it on the cooler side, about 55 degrees, to accentuate the wild-berry fruit and mute the acidity). Give it a splash-decant about 15 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems with just about any easy weeknight meal you want to throw at it: burgers, pizza, baked pasta, roast chicken…all will be beautifully pointed up by this lively, energetic red. The more I come across wines like this, the more I realize they’re pretty much all I want to drink these days—unfussy, refreshing, low in alcohol, and straightforwardly delicious. Sound good? I thought so. Enjoy!
