Winemaker Notes
A deep ruby red wine with great character and personality. The scent is broad and enveloping, with hints of blackcurrant, spicy notes of juniper and black pepper, combined with hints of tobacco and coffee. It is fresh and intense on the palate, with superb aromatic persistence.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A single vineyard iteration, drawing fruit from an historically crucial site, quite steep and chalky-calcareous and dropping to the Adige river. Corvina (80%) and oseleta (20%). No dried fruit. The brusque, firm and punchy nature of oseleta's tannins are evident on the attack. Yet the mid-palate is spherical and energetic, serving to mitigate any sense of stiffness, while splaying anise, mint, leather varnish and dark, saturated berry. This is a very good wine, built for the cellar. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
La Grola has been a stalwart wine of the Allegrini family since 1989. This 90% Corvina and 10% Oseleta blend opens with aromas of black plum, macerated black cherries, clove, cinnamon, black pepper and violets. As the wine further opens, cedar, cigar box and tobacco notes develop. On the palate, there is a dance between rich black-hued fruits and taut well-structured tannins as savory and earthy notes add to the intrigue.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant red, with fine tannins seamlessly meshed with the ripe black and red cherry flavors. Accents of cured tobacco, rose hip, cocoa powder and anise wind through the fruit profile, and a subtle, minerally streak of fresh earth and iron lingers on the finish. Corvina and Oseleta. Drink now through 2034. 15,833 cases made, 787 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 90% Corvina with 10% Oseleta, the 2020 La Grola shows ripe fruit, some background herbal notes, licorice, tar and soft spice. There is a slightly wild side to this easy red wine with fresh acidity and a whistle-clean finish. With 70,000 bottles released, La Grola paints a more focused picture of Corvina specifically, a grape normally used in traditional Amarone blends.
The chief variety in Valpolicella and Amarone della Valpolicella of the Veneto region of Italy, Corvina contributes intense red cherry and blackberry along with a touch of tartness and tannins to the blend. It is especially well suited to the drying process required to make Amarone. Corvina is also the main grape variety in Bardolino, a light red from the southeastern side of Lake Garda, also in Veneto. Somm Secret—Because of the dark and almost black coloring of its grape berries, Corvina takes its name from the Italian word, corvo, a local, jet-black raven.
Producing every style of wine and with great success, the Veneto is one of the most multi-faceted wine regions of Italy.
Veneto's appellation called Valpolicella (meaning “valley of cellars” in Italian) is a series of north to south valleys and is the source of the region’s best red wine with the same name. Valpolicella—the wine—is juicy, spicy, tart and packed full of red cherry flavors. Corvina makes up the backbone of the blend with Rondinella, Molinara, Croatina and others playing supporting roles. Amarone, a dry red, and Recioto, a sweet wine, follow the same blending patterns but are made from grapes left to dry for a few months before pressing. The drying process results in intense, full-bodied, heady and often, quite cerebral wines.
Soave, based on the indigenous Garganega grape, is the famous white here—made ultra popular in the 1970s at a time when quantity was more important than quality. Today one can find great values on whites from Soave, making it a perfect choice as an everyday sipper! But the more recent local, increased focus on low yields and high quality winemaking in the original Soave zone, now called Soave Classico, gives the real gems of the area. A fine Soave Classico will exhibit a round palate full of flavors such as ripe pear, yellow peach, melon or orange zest and have smoky and floral aromas and a sapid, fresh, mineral-driven finish.
Much of Italy’s Pinot grigio hails from the Veneto, where the crisp and refreshing style is easy to maintain; the ultra-popular sparkling wine, Prosecco, comes from here as well.