Monte del Fra Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Lena di Mezzo 2013
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#61 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2019
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Wine Enthusiast
Inviting aromas of dark-skinned berry, pipe tobacco, cassis and cedar lead the way on this smooth, full-bodied, savory red. The concentrated balanced palate doles out ripe black currant, raspberry jam, nutmeg and pepper alongside fine-grained tannins. Drink through 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Monte del Frá 2013 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Lena di Mezzo (a blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella) undergoes a long appassimento process, lasting anywhere from three to four months, depending on the conditions of the vintage. Hot vintages tend to be followed by slightly shorter dehydration times. This is a very sharp and buttoned up expression that shows a crisper and tighter personality than its peers. The grapes are fermented cold, and malolactic fermentation is in stainless steel, thus the intensity of those dried berry aromas is maintained well throughout the process. This is a full-bodied Amarone that has the inner elegance to pair with a white meat such as roasted pork with crunchy pork skins. Some 60,000 bottles were released.
Monte del Frà has a lovely Italian history. It is the history of a farming family led by their forefather Massimo Bonomo, who in 1958 (a year decorating their bottles today) rented his first agricultural lands in one of the most fascinating area of the North of Italy, the hills surrounding Lake Garda, in the province of Verona. This is a land shaped by glaciers, rich in minerals, with a Mediterranean climate and featured by a more than thousand-year-old history.
This is a land where some of the top-quality and most famous Italian wines originate.
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.
Among the ranks of Italy’s quintessential red wines, Valpolicella literally translates to the “valley of cellars” and is composed of a series of valleys (named Fumane, Marano and Negrare) that start in the pre-alpine Lissini Mountains and end in the southern plains of the Veneto. Here vineyards adorn the valley hillsides, rising up to just over 1,300 feet.
The classification of its red wines makes this appellation unique. Whereas most Italian regions claim the wines from one or two grapes as superior, or specific vineyards or communes most admirable, Valpolicella ranks the caliber of its red wines based on delimited production methods, and every tier uses the same basic blending grapes.
Corvina holds the most esteem among varieties here and provides the backbone of the best reds of Valpolicella. Also typical in the blends, in lesser quantities, are Rondinella, Molinara, Oseleta, Croatina, Corvinone and a few other minor red varieties.
Valpolicella Classico, the simplest category, is where the region’s top values are found and resembles in style light and fruity Beaujolais. The next tier of reds, called Valpolicella Superiore, represents a darker and more serious and concentrated expression of Valpolicella, capable of pairing with red meat, roast poultry and hard cheeses.
Most prestigious in Valpolicella are the dry red, Amarone della Valpolicella, and its sweet counterpart, Recioto della Valpolicella. Both are created from harvested grapes left to dry for three to five months before going to press, resulting in intensely rich, lush, cerebral and cellar-worthy wines.
Falling in between Valpolicella Superiore and Amarone is a style called Valpolicella Ripasso, which has become immensely popular only since the turn of the century. Ripasso literally means “repassed” and is made by macerating fresh Valpolicella on the pressed grape skins of Amarone. As a result, a Ripasso will have more depth and complexity compared to a regular Superiore but is more approachable than an Amarone.