ALPHA ZETA 'A' Amarone Della Valpolicella 2012

ALPHA ZETA ‘A’ Amarone della Valpolicella 2012 www.alphazetawines.com TASTING NOTE HISTORY Deep and intense on the nose with Alpha Zeta was started in 1999 when UK perfumes of dried cherries and blueberries, with importer David Gleave MW and New notes of spiced autumn fruit compote. On the Zealand winemaker Matt Thomson set out to palate it is powerful but modern, with a AWARDS produce a range of modern, fruit driven wines lovely balance of ripe tannins and spiced, BRONZE from the hills outside Verona. The aim was to concentrated savoury cherry fruit character. International Wine work with growers (rather than buy bulk A touch of woodsmoke completes the long Challenge 2015 wine, which is standard among most wines BRONZE fnish. A great food wine. Pair this with pasta from Verona at this price) to obtain ripe Decanter World Wine dishes with strong tomato or trufe sauces, Awards 2015 grapes (by reducing yields and picking beef, game and rich meat stews. Perfect as a later) and then, using Matt’s expertise, `meditation` wine to fnish the meal with hard preserve these flavours in the finished and full favoured Italian cheeses. wines. The result is a realisation of the potential inherent in Veronese viniculture. VINEYARDS The vineyards are situated in the hills VINTAGE INFORMATION outside Verona in the Valpantena Valley. The summer of 2012 was hot and very dry Cool currents blow down the valley from the right through to the start of harvest for the foothills of the Dolomites, which helps early varieties. The first rain for some time to moderate the climate, enabling the occurred just as they were completing the grapes to ripen slowly. This helps the grapes earlier harvests, which was very welcome as it to retain their aromatic compounds and breathed life in to the later ripening varieties acidity. The soil is a mixture of clay and such as Garganega and Corvina. The rain limestone with good drainage. The continued to fall in sporadic bursts until close vineyards are south-facing, which makes to the end of the harvest period. Selection and them warmer than other parts of Valpolicella. careful monitoring of vineyards was necessary this year as a result. Although yields were dramatically down, the quality of grapes VINIFICATION harvested was excellent and very healthy. Selected grapes were picked in mid The wines are ripe and concentrated. September and left to dry in specially ventilated rooms until the end of January. During this time the grapes lost about 40% of their natural weight. The grapes were destemmed and crushed at the end of GRAPE VARIETIES January. Fermentation temperature was 90% Corvina/Corvinone; 10% Rondinella between 18°-22°C with daily periodic REGION - Valpolicella pumping over, while the length of WINEMAKER - Matt Thomson maceration was 20 days. This Amarone CLOSURE - Cork was matured in oak (a mixture of large ALCOHOL (ABV) - 15% ‘botti’ and French oak barriques) for 18 ACIDITY - 5.6g/l months, lightly fned with eggwhites and then RESIDUAL SUGAR - 8g/l bottled. WINE PH - 3.55 A BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

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