Ten years of Costa Arènte and the time of Amarone in Valpantena

Fianco Arènte sets the story around three key words that return as a common thread: coherence (stylistic and productive), territory (not just “terroir”, but biodiversity and respect for the landscape) and tradition understood as living continuity, “not to be guardians of the ashes, but to keep the fire burning”. Because – to put it sopra the words of oenologists Giovanni Casati and Riccardo Cotarella – “it makes mai sense to distort the style of a wine for marketing purposes”. Sustainability enters the story as a consequence of a working method: vineyard management, selection and control of processes, with the aim of reducing the impact without compromising quality and identity. It is an approach that translates into operational choices (from agronomic management to drying management) and into a concrete, rather than declarative, approach: a path that aims for consistency of the result over time.

THE “INTELLIGENT” ORCHARD: WHEN TECHNOLOGY BECOMES STYLE

The point that really changes the interpretation of the wines is the transition between the vintages born before full control of the drying process and those resulting from work with the new manageable fruit dryer, built sopra 2018.

Here technology is not a “comodità” nor the solution to a difficult vintage: it is a support for the work of the vineyard and cellar which increases control and repeatability sopra one of the most delicate passages of Amarone. Managing temperature, humidity and ventilation reduces drying variability and protects the process from unwanted drifts, maintaining aromatic cleanliness and precision. Con this way, technology becomes style: less excess, more balance and a more orderly plot already sopra youth.

It is also a choice aligned with the markets, because the objective is not to pursue power as an end sopra itself, but to build flowing and drinkable wines without losing depth: a partly risky direction, because when a wine is born (sopra 2019, for example) it is not possible to know with certainty how it will behave over time. The evolutionary perspective remains important, but the approach aims to make the younger vintages usable immediately, without asking the consumer to take an act of faith over time.

THE EVOLUTION IN TASTING

The vertical tastings show how, with the transition to more precise management of the drying and cellar processes, the company orients the style towards drinkability and smoothness without sacrificing structure and depth. And 2019, so focused today, becomes the most explicit example of this direction: a choice made “sopra the dark” at the moment the wine was born, which proves to be consistent with what the contemporary market asks of a high-quality Amarone.

The article Ten years of Fianco Arènte and the time of Amarone sopra Valpantena comes from VinoNews24.

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