Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A close-to-even blend of cabernet and carmenere, with an increasing percentage of merlot and franc. Violet lift. Green olive spread. Chili, spearmint, bitter chocolate and dense, boysenberry confiture. Yet the feel, while full-weighted, is immensely savoury. The oak, an enticing framework, melding effortlessly with the density of the wine and modern, prescient style. This has a strong Bordeaux feel to it, with an extra degree of polish and richness. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère and Cabernet Franc are blended to create this iconic red that swirls in the glass with aromas of crushed blackberries, Marasca cherries in liquor, crushed red and blue flowers, cedar and mixed spices. Bold flavors pop on the palate but are restrained by an elegant mix of tannin, acidity and savory elements that do not want to let loose just yet.
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Decanter
A majority blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Carmenere, Cabernet Franc and Merlot for good measure, this red combines fleshy red and black fruit flavours and floral, aromatic lift with a fine, grainy structure. The 12 months in 40% new barriques shows through in the form of chocolate, cream and black pepper which linger in the background, but there's also good freshness to counter the touch of warmth on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here's a red wine from northern Italy that I've always liked. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Carménère, the Inama 2020 Colli Berici Cabernet Bradisismo is special not just because of the unusual blend of grapes. This is a plump and especially accessible red wine that offers wide versatility and lots of food-pairing potential. This vintage shows soft ripeness across both varieties with a rich, full-bodied texture. There is spice and a hint of pepper to finish.
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Wine Spectator
Shows pure, juicy flavors of ripe black currant fruit, layered with pretty accents of violet, tar, ground coffee, wild sage and fine-grained tannins. Focused and creamy on the palate, with hints of fresh earth and forest floor adding a savory edge to the fruit on the finish. Drink now through 2030.
Now in its third generation of leadership, the Inama family has been producing wine for over forty years in the Veneto. The family has a well-defined goal to produce different wines whose only aim is to represent their vision of the land, despite the styles and trends of the moment. In the 1950s, prior to founding the Inama estate, Giuseppe Inama began using his savings to purchase small plots of vineyards in the center of the Soave Classico region. At the time few understood the area's potential, but Giuseppe believed that he could make a wine capable of restoring Soave's reputation by working with only top-quality vineyards of old-vine Garganega (Soave’s original grape).
At Inama, white grapes are picked fully ripe, and after a short maceration and gentle pressing the must is left to settle before a temperature-controlled fermentation and spontaneous malolactic fermentation. In order to preserve both the aromatic intensity and natural balance of the grapes, the wines are bottled with minimum fining and filtration.
In addition to working with Garganega, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, Inama also grows traditional Bordeaux varietals in the historic, hidden zone of Colli Berici – Italy’s oldest DOC for Cabernet and Merlot grapes. Their Carmenère vineyards here date back to the 1800s. This historic, though little known zone south of Vicenza has a temperate climate and is marked by unique ancient geological seismic events calle “bradyseism”—volcanic ridges generating a soil extremely rich in trace elements and minerals. Inama feels this terroir is the most underrated and under-realized in Italy and his goal is to produce great wines from these hillsides.
Inama believes in everyday living and minimalism, respecting the winemaking practices that have laid the foundations of modern wine.
Producing wine for more than half century has led them to develop three fundamental values that inspire their projects: a great terroir dominates the varietal aspects of the grape. A wine’s caliber depends upon the quality of the ecosystem, with the soil paramount. Inama is always working to refine technique, developing internal research and collaborating with some of the most renowned international experts.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
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.