Corvina

Corvina — the name evokes the raven, corvo — is the historic dark grape of the Verona hills, the core of Valpolicella and Bardolino. Its thick skin was made for the drying lofts: as early as the sixth century, Cassiodorus, minister to Theodoric, praised Verona's Acinatico, a wine of grapes dried through the winter — the ancestor of Recioto and Amarone.

The grape gives sour cherry and bitter almond, moderate colour and a fresh, sapid drive. From it Valpolicella draws its whole register: the easy red of the valley floors, ripasso re-fermented on Amarone's pomace, and Amarone itself, where months of appassimento concentrate Corvina into dark amplitude without erasing its bitter-cherry signature.