Allegrini to become the first Amarone to release on La Place de Bordeaux

The September campaign will see the release of two wines from the Valpolicella region – including the first Amarone to be sold through the fine wine platform, says db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay.

As long-time followers of the evolution and expansion of the Bordeaux-based fine wine market, the drinks business is pleased to be able to break the news of the latest arrivals on La place de Bordeaux from Northern Italy.

These are not from Piedmont; nor from Tuscany. They are from Veneto.

This September’s hors Bordeaux (literally, ‘beyond Bordeaux’) campaign will see the release of the first two premium wines from the iconic Valpolicella region – including the first Amarone – through La Place.

And the wines could not come from a more august producer, Allegrini. They set the bar very high for future releases from North-Eastern Italy, Amarone in particular. They are La Poja 2017 and Allegrini’s very top cuvée, the rare Amarone Classico Riserva Fieramonte from 2015. Both are from prime single-vineyard locations.

The courtier is Timothée Moreau of Bureau des Grands Vins who is rapidly acquiring a reputation as a specialist in premium Italian wines on La Place after the highly successful release of Michele Chiarlo’s Barolo Cerequio 2018 last March.

I tasted the wines in Bordeaux with Raffaele Augelli, Allegrini’s recently appointed senior export manager, before speaking with Marilisa Allegrini herself over Zoom. ‘Lady Amarone’, as she is affectionally known as in the region, is clearly delighted at the prospect of reaching an even more global market for these wines:

“This is the cherry on the cake for us after the increasing success of our wines these past decades. I am very enthusiast about this new chapter for us. La Poja and Fieramonte are our signature wines; they mark the vision and style of Allegrini. To be sold alongside the very best grands crus of Bordeaux and many of the other finest wines of the world on La Place was my brother Franco’s wish and we are thrilled to be able to pursue his lifetime dream today”.

The strategy is a simple but effective one, with La Place (through the ten negociants selected) selling each wine to a network of distributors, importers and private clients in all markets except Italy, the US and Canada (around 80% of the current global distribution).

As Raffaele Augelli explained: “Our vision is to increase the capillarity of the distribution of our fine wines. The know-how and the international networks developed over centuries by Bordeaux’s negociants help us better to reach wine lovers and collectors wherever in the world they are located. We are honoured to be the first producers from our region on La Place and we truly believe that it is the right next step to enhance awareness of both Allegrini and Valpolicella and to further enhance their prestige”.

Tasting notes

Allegrini La Poja 2017

(IGT; 100% Corvina Veronese; 14.7% alcohol; pH 3.51; from a single vineyard plot on the plateau at the top of the hill, with an average altitude of 320 metres on an argilo-calcaire terroir).

A Super-Venetian in a world of Super-Tuscans, this is from a single vineyard and from a single varietal. An iconoclastic icon in that it was the very first premium wine of the region not to deploy the appassimento method. The closeness to Lake Garda brings important cooling breezes and the Cyprus trees that encircle the vineyard protect the vines from the risk of wind damage. This is wonderfully open and expressive aromatically, with the verticality and lift from its argilo-calcaire terroir. Dark sour cherries, fresh damson flesh, fig and assorted dried fruits alongside the more balsamic and wild herbal elements, with cracked black and green Szechuan peppercorns. Cloves, juniper berries, wild herbal notes and a touch of garrigue; dark chocolate and espresso coffee too. Texturally exquisite, this is lithe and tender in the mouth, with ultra-fine grained tannins and a cool and sinuous quality rare even in the very best wines of the region. Tender and chewy on the rolling, rippling finish as the balsamic notes subside. Very pure. The current production is around 12,000 bottles (with around 10,000 of those destined for La Place). 94.

Allegrini Fieramonte Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2015

(DOCG Amarone; 45% Corvina Veronese; 45% Corvinone; 5% Rondinella; 5% Oseleta; aged 48 months in French oak barrels; six months blending in large format Slavonian oak; one year in bottle before release; 16.7% alcohol; pH 3.5; from a single-vineyard with an average altitude of 415 metres dominating the Fumane valley on pebbly, stony soils rich in manganese and iron; this is only made in the very best years and is a relatively new cuvée, with the entire vineyard having been replanted in 2001; 2011 was the first vintage).

This fabulously well-placed vineyard is of eight hectares, but there is a double selection here reducing the total production even in the most generous of vintages to a little over 5000 bottles and a few magnums. The rest goes into Allegrini’s excellent Amarone Classico. This is staggeringly complex and wonderfully floral – with violets and dried rose petals, a touch of saffron, bracken, liquorice root, clove, red Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon, baies de timut, and assorted medicinal herbs rather than the more Balsamic notes of La Poja. Even more so than La Poja, this is incredibly refined texturally, with a sublimely velvety mouthfeel and a sumptuous, rich and taut mid-palate. The wonderfully grippy tannins seem to grab the pure, dense, compact fruit and massage it into the cheeks, releasing ripples of sapidity and freshness as they do so. Deep, rich but always fresh, lifted and intensely spicy. This builds as it unfurls at the top of the palate before releasing a descending shower of tannin-coated sapid juicy fruit. Brilliant and amazingly vibrant and energetic for a wine with this much substance (and alcohol). The total production here is around 5000 bottles, with 3000 or so for la place, 1000 for the library stock and 1000 for Italy and North America. One of the stars of the September 2022 ‘hors Bordeaux’ releases on La Place. 98.