Pasqua Ripasso Valpolicella Superiore

Wine: Pasqua Ripasso Valpolicella Superiore

Grape: Valpolicella

Region: Verona, northern Italy

Vintage: 2009

Price: $9.99

In the glass: Pasqua Ripasso wine is a deeply opaque blackish-red color with an inky core going out into a deep garnet to brick-red rim definition with high viscosity.

On the nose: It takes a little while to discern the olfactory notes, but when ready the wine releases wonderful and complex layers of mature fruit with diced black plums, mulberry crush, game meat, dried cherries, dark chocolate, coffee grounds, iodine, earth-driven minerals and black currant jam.

On the palate: It is quite an experience because it hits like a rich, semi-bittersweet dried fruit bomb with massive concentration, aged black plums, spiced-up cassis fruit, red cherry compote, ripe and very rustic huckleberries, dried herbs and earthy minerals. The midpalate of this huge full-bodied wine is dense with flavors, showing massive tannins, yet ripeness and balance, on the basis of acidity that works with the phenols and fruit. The finish is concentrated black cherries, mulberries and hints of sweet currants. This is such an interesting and lovely aromatic wine that it will certainly thrill any drinker of it, as well as provide plenty of conversation.

Odds and ends: The term ripasso (meaning re-passed) applies to Valpolicella wine that has been made by re-fermenting with the pomace (leftover grape skins) from amarone wine and extending the maceration, thereby almost reconstituting the wine.

The process of producing amarone was developed in Italy in the Middle Ages. It is a process whereby after the Valpolicella grapes have been picked, they are placed on straw flats and then up in dry attics of the winery buildings for about nine months. During this time, the harsh tannins and acidity of the grapes soften, the sugars concentrate and the grapes shrivel up into something like moist raisins. At that point, they are pressed and the juice fermented slowly in a fermentation process that usually leaves a bit more residual sugar than had they been just picked and then fermented.

Matured for 12 months in oak and a further nine in the bottle results in fabulously sturdy wines that are tasty to drink this time of the year. Ripasso often is referred to as baby amarone.

Pasqua is an excellent producer of both amarone and ripasso, and this is a highly recommended wine. Try it with roasted leg of lamb, nicely rubbed with garlic, spices and herbs. Drink it now through 2018.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.