Valpolicella Ripasso - A punch in the face, a kiss on the cheek

I was lucky enough to be asked to run an Italian wine tasting at a private event at Niche a few weeks ago. That meant I got to visit  Niche ahead of time and taste the wines before selecting them. Since I did  have to stick to a budget, I was faced with the challenge of finding the best and most interesting wines within a certain price range.

As I explored the menu, I came across a wine that was totally new to me: Valpollicella Ripasso. Of course, I have had plenty of Valpolicella in my day....most of it light bodied and easy to drink, but not particularly memorable.  But what was Ripasso? I took out my iPhone and began to google.

I found that Valpolicella Ripasso is a fruity, complex red wine from the Valpolicella viticultural zone of Veneto, northeastern Italy. Because Valpolicella's wines are generally lighter, winemakers sometimes use various techniques to improve the depth and complexity of their blends. One of those ways is Ripasso -- or repassed -- a method that was developed in the late 20th century.
In this process the Valpolicella wine goes through a second fermentation  with the skins and lees left over from intensely flavored and highly aromatic Amarone wines. Amarone is considered one of Italy’s best red wines. It is made from super ripe grapes that are dried to produce full-flavored wines that are velvety and rich with just a hint of sweetness.

The Ripasso or “repassed” method gives the Valpolicella more depth and complexity.Often referred to as “baby Amarones” or the “Poor Man’s Amarones,” these wines can be amazingly rich at half the cost of Amarone wines, that are usually priced at more than $50 a bottle.

The Valpolicella Ripasso on Niche's menu was the Tommaso Bussola 2010 “Ca’ del Laito,” made from mostly Corvina and Corvinone grapes. It was in the acceptable price range and was a small production wine, about 1,200 cases, so that was promising too. It turned out to be absolutely delicious. The wine was fresh and smooth with a lot of depth and complexity. It tasted of ripe black cherries with spicy notes and a long finish. 

I included the wine in the tasting and everyone loved it. So then I tried to find it at wine shops, with no luck. However, I did find the Giuseppe Lonardi 2010 Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso at the Wine Merchant for $21.99. I invited friends Nick Garzia and Guillermo "Guillo" Rodríguez  to help me taste.

Nick had a great reaction.

"It's like a punch in the face and a kiss on the cheek," he said. And he meant that in a good way.

But Guillo was not impressed. "For that price, I'd rather have a nice Chianti Classico," he said.

The wine, which I reviewed for my St. Louis Post-Dispatch column, starts out with tart cherry and plum flavors that are very intense. But then it ends with a smooth, almost sweet strawberry fruit on the finish.

While I thought the Bussola Ca' del Laito was a better wine, this was still quite good. The Lonardi is a medium bodied red that’s a blend of 75 percent corvina, 20 percent rondinella and 5 percent molinera. It 's definitely turbo charged from the second fermentation with the remainders of Amarone wines.  Because this Valpolicella Ripasso is so strongly flavored, it needs food. It would go well with robust meat dishes as well as aged cheeses. It also has a good acidity that would make it a pair for tomato sauce.
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