Description

Tenuta Sant’Antonio Amarone della Valpolicella Selezione Antonio Castagned 2017

94 pts – Vinous

The 2017 Amarone della Valpolicella Antonio Castagnedi is dusty and floral, with black cherries lifted by smoky crushed stone. This impresses further with undeniably elegant textures, silky and refined, more savory than sweet and with a saturation of primary fruits. Plums, blackberries, minerals and brown spice can all be found, as the 2017 comes across as powerful and elegant. This is a tamed beast of an Amarone with depths of intensity and full of character as it tapers off balsamic, lightly structured and spicy. Wow, and at a balanced 15% abv. Drinking Window: 2022 – 2033.

93 pts – James Suckling

Intense dried cranberry and steely blackcurrant on the nose. Balsamic, dried-herb and licoricy oak, too. Full and very concentrated on the palate with a focused, flavorful drive of spicy fruit and well-integrated tannins that pushes on and on. Tempting now, but best from 2023.

Overview

The ‘Selezone Antonio Castagnedi’ is made up of 70% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, 5% Croatina, 5% Oseleta. Amarone della Valpolicella is the most prestigious red wine of Veneto, and the four brothers who started Tenuta Sant’Antonio dedicate their primary Amarone to their father, Antonio Castagnedi. The vineyards are located in Municipality of Mezzane di Sotto – Monti Garbi District (Verona). Vines 20-25 years old and grow on Sandy, silty with large amounts of white skeletal limestone. The best grapes are selected for this wine and are brought to the winery’s drying room to undergo the appassimento process. After at least 3 months of drying, the grapes have shriveled and lost much of their water, while retaining their sugar, flavor, and other components. Once fermented and aged in new barrels, the Amarone is a powerful wine, yet fruity, fresh, and clean.

Winemaker Notes