welcome to the VA policella in Northern Italy a wine Utopia full of precious treasure in ancient times these lands were visited by people of note from poets to Emperors to take part in legendary wine tastings the region is most known for amarone de la policella considered one of the world's greatest wines but how it came to be is shrouded in mystery so get ready for a rare look inside one of the world's most coveted wine regions the vapolicella I'm Tony margiata and you're watching Italy's Best Kept wine secrets foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music]
to is a region in the northeast of Italy that stretches from the beaches of the Adriatic Sea to the pointed peaks of the dolomites it's named after one of the most fascinating cities in the world Venice the vanity people have been inhabiting this part of Italy for over 2500 years but people have been thriving here long before that handing back to the dawn of humanity one of the earliest archaeological sites of humans can be found in the fumane cave sixty thousand years ago in the Valpolicella of Veneto as people went from hunter-gatherers to Farmers at
the end of pre-history the aristnate people of Etruscan region Origins inhabited the vapolicella because of its fertile lands findings from the 7th to the 5th Century BC dating back to the time of the arrival of the Etruscans and their meeting with the ariesnates a test that in this area the fruit of the vine was already transformed into wine historical testimonies also report that in the second century BC to the defeat of the kimbri by the Roman Legions was due to the attractive products of the region grapes contributed in a decisive way specifically in the territories
north of Verona there were wines appreciated by Virgil ancient Rome's greatest poet and Straubel a Greek geographer and it would appear that the rishan wine could be considered an ancestor of the current Valpolicella wines [Music] some wine and phora dating back to Roman times still intact were found in San Giorgio in salichi during the works for the planting of a Vineyard in those ancient times the cultivation of the vine was developed and in the province of Verona the rishin grape was produced the great Roman poet katulus originally from Verona was the author of immortal poems
and drowned the Pains of love with a good rich in wine katulus's father offered this wine to Julius Caesar as his guest at Lake Garda foreign y the Elder the Roman naturalist appreciated it he wrote sometime between 29 and 70 A.D about eating at the table the dried reaching grapes from a field in Verona another Latin writer suetonius said that the wine of Verona was greatly appreciated by the Emperor Augustus and strabo said that it was among the most praised in Italy all of these accounts paints a picture that the area around the Verona Province
Lake Garda and the Valpolicella had fertile soils good climate and delicious wines made with dried grapes and while the references to Rich and wine seemed to infer a sweet red wine made from dried grapes and the Romans did love their sweet wines it's logical to assume a sweet red wine made from dried grapes is a direct descendant and considered the ancestor of all the vapolicella wines rachotto derives from the Venetian word reicha referring to the ear the top part of a Corvina cluster known as the ear had the sweetest grapes and only those were used
for making high quality ricotto so was rishan wine always a sweet wine some evidence tells a different story and the great wine amarone de la vapolicella May provide some compelling insights [Music] today the vapolicella has a thriving wine industry and one of Italy's most important wine regions the vapolicella is not a city it's a place located just north of the city of Verona and just east of Lake Garda it's actually a large Valley with many little valleys inside of it the name vapolicella derives from the Latin words valispolis chele Valley of many sellers the Romans
conquered the area over 2 000 years ago and it appears they named this place after something important the name indicates the vapolicella was a thriving wine production area since before they arrived reaffirming the evidence of a thriving wine culture before their arrival there are few places in the world whose name can be derived directly from wine what did the ancient people know about this special place a group of scientists recently excavated an area in the vapolicella where they discovered prehistoric grapevines and great pollen several layers below the ground after an analysis the research concluded these
Vines and pollen were 6 300 years old they also discovered there was a period of about three thousand years that the people inhabiting this area were farming and thriving from these lands this was all done before the Roman period it's likely there was already a thriving wine culture in the vapolicella and at the Romans perfected the farming and vinification techniques today there are two main areas of production for vapolicello wines there is the classical sub-region and the vapolicella sub-region the classical area is the original historical area of production while the vapolicella is the extended area
that came later why the two areas the classical zone is made up of more rugged terrain high elevations steep slopes with rock moral and skeleton soils the area is much harder to farm and demand strong and highly skilled labor to cultivate the land the vapolicella extended area rests on flatter land making it feasible for heavy machinery to industrialize the land and machine harvest the grapes not always but oftentimes you'll find the big industrial wineries in the extended vapolicella for this reason the extended area really came about due to the success of wines coming from the
classical Zone which is very restricted and cannot expand more demand for vapolicello wines necessitated this extended area that's why you'll see some valpolicello wines containing the word classical on the labels While others don't these are small details but they give you a clue as to where the wine comes from there are five communes in the VA Police San Pietro and cariano santambrojo and fumane the classical designation can't be found on the wine label unless the wines come from these five communes I went on a trip to the fumane valley to get a closer look at
the vapolicella family of wines like the classical classical Superior reposo considered today as one of the world's finest wines the name fumane likely derives from the Italian word fumo for smoke referring to the clouds that envelope the hills after a storm [Music] the fumane valley where I discovered a Hidden Gem Winery producing a treasure Trove of magical wines the ugalini Family Estate but as you'll soon see the ugolini wines are so much more than just delicious drinks and once you've discovered those secrets you may never taste wines the same way again as the popularity and
demand for vampolicello wines grew throughout the world the big wine houses had to industrialize their production methods to keep up with the demand as production levels grew the quality of wines began to fall peak of this industrialization of mass-produced wines Angelo ugolini the original owner of the estate passes away leaving his wife and children to take over the family business it was his son Jam Batista that took the reins to lead the estate into the future Crossroads of mass-produced wine and the passing of his father and John Batista's passion for nature the Arts and traditions
he made a decision in 1996 to convert the estate to organic farming now today organic wine is commonplace but in the mid 90s it was a revolutionary decision in the vapolicella the neighboring wineries thought he was crazy to go back to using more natural and traditional farming methods but it turned out to be the right decision for the long term John Batista ugolini just might be one of the first terrorists in the region not only because of organic sustainable farming but also because he devised a crew system for the vapolicello wines at the estate so
every wine expresses a snapshot of a specific Vineyard breathing life and character into the wine and we'll be taking a deeper dive later into those wines including an amarone single Vineyard crew [Music] [Music] thank you in Crystal videos [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Dube foreign [Music] foreign [Music] Batista was awarded Knighthood by the Italian republic for his contribution to the restoration and preservation of the historic vapolicella with the acquisition of Villa San Miguel a 19th century Austrian prison now converted to a
tasting space for the ugolini wines the Family Estate rises above the vapolicella hills as a historical treasure [Music] today Villa San Miguel he is one of the most fascinating places in the vampolicella John Batista entrusted the restoration of the Villa to small Craftsmen from all over Italy glassmakers metal engravers wood carers Stone sculptors with the artistic talent that distinguishes Italy from the rest of the world one of the restorative projects at Villa San miguela are the characteristic stone walls called Marone found all over and around the vapolicella the Marone are the original solar panels with
multiple functions they support the Priceless Landscapes so the hilly Vineyards don't wash away from the rain the stones absorb heat from the sunlight keeping the soils warm even in the winter months and give home to insects that keep the soils in balance and fertile for The Vineyards John Batista found the most skilled Stone Carvers in the Valpolicella to restore these Walling systems that contribute not just the art and beauty of nature of the region but also give rise to Monumental wines John Bautista is not simply the owner of a Family Winery but a person with
a philanthropic Vision that combines the nature history and craftsmanship of the vapolicella into a wine experience with meaning his commitment to safeguarding Art nature and the great works of humankind somehow finds itself in every glass of uwellini wines thank you foreign [Music] state in early September just as the Harvest was beginning patches of rain clouds were hovering in the area and so the Harvest team were on call to pick the grapes at any moment the first single Vineyard we visited was pozetto it's located in front of Villa San Miguel pozetto produces the vapolicella Clasico wine
a traditional red blend of the region as I walk down the rows of pozetto I felt immediately transported into ancient Italy a time when the world was too large to comprehend and no technology to distract the mind the beautiful architecture of the vines expressed the natural achievements of humankind and uniquely representative of ancient Italian scenery pozetto is the ugolini family's first generation Vineyard it's the Legacy left behind by grandfather Angelo the founder of the Family Estate here The Winds of the valley have dragged Stones torn from the mountain rocks to formulate the soils and support
the paragola veronese vine training system which produces 90 quintels per hectare The Vines grow above the head in orderly fashion it's a brilliant ancient system of cultivation that can be traced back thousands of years the canopies protect the grape cluster from too much sun exposure protecting the grape skins maintains the aromatic compounds found in the grapes paragola veronese also produces a corridor below the grapes allowing winds to blow underneath and keeping them cooler especially during hot summers foreign system with that wind Corridor allow the grapes to develop with higher acids ample polyphenolic material and proper
sugar levels so the resulting wines are par excellence key to the system is managing the vines to ensure the yields are low the ugolini crew system takes this a step further by doing a first pass Harvest targeting only the healthiest grape clusters and cutting off any subpar grapes and only making wine with the finest only native varieties of the vapolicella like Corvina corvinone rondimela molinara and others are grown in the pozetto vineyard the wine is fresh fragrant and crisp so you can enjoy it as an aperitivo or with light Fair unlike many industrial wineries the
pozetto the police ages and steel Vats without any alteration or addition of flavor or Texture from Oak the wine ages in the cellar for three years before making it available to the public I met with Angela ugolini the son of jam Batista and named after his grandfather whose primary role is the procurement of The Vineyards leading a small Harvest crew I got to see exactly how they harvest The Grapes using the crew system s [Music] foreign foreign and see kilometers okay Massimo say result volcetto has a lightweight body but full mouth feel seductive aromatics of
veronese cherry strawberry with rose petal notes a touch of pepper and a mineral finish this is the wine that Ernest Hemingway one of the greatest writers of all time romantic ized about in his books foreign the next day we went to the San miguela Vineyard located on the hill behind the villa this single Vineyard crew is the VA Police Superior wine and named after the church behind the vineyard foreign [Music] as I approached the vineyard on foot I began to realize how steep the slope was climbing the rocky stairs I lost my balance because I
wasn't prepared how quickly the slope cut upward this Splendid Vineyard lies on the crest of the valley at about 650 feet above sea level exposed to the southeast it's supported by a deep tufa slab of rock which gives the wines great elegance and aromatic complexity here the veronese espalier vine system is used to maximize the sun exposures at such a steep slope The Vines are tamed by human hands producing a low 70 quintils per hectare offering high quality grapes for wines with a strong identity another characteristic of the vineyard are the Marone stone walls that
protect the landscape from washing away while attracting sunlight to keep the soils warm and shelter for the proper insects to keep ecological balance like pozetto the grapes are hand harvested and hand selected keeping only the best clusters for vinification the blend is primarily Corvina secondarily corvinone and then rondinella along with a tiny percentage of oseleta the grapes are pressed the same day of harvest and are aged in French perique and large Oak casks for at least two years depending on the Vintage the wine resin bottle in the estate Cellar for a period of an additional
three years so a total of at least five years of Aging before releasing to the public the wine has a brilliant ruby red color with an aroma of red fruits such as Verona cherries a mix of delicately sweet and spicy notes reminiscent of cocoa nutmeg and vanilla it's a super smooth and sophisticated wine that will tantalize your senses for hours of pleasure [Music] [Music] our next destination was found on the back roads of the vapolicella when you leave Villa San miguela and Ascend to the peaks of the fumane valley a trove of treasures are waiting
first we had to pass through the center of the commune of fumane and then work our way up in elevation we were on our way to a mountain peak called montesolane or the sunny mountain when we arrived I noticed we were alone with The Vineyards there wasn't a person or a house or a store anywhere in sight the higher we went the more rugged the terrain got we arrived at montesolane this is the single Vineyard crew that gives birth to the ugalini ripasso de la vapolicella on the northern border of the vapolicella Rises montesolane it's
a Scenic Ridge dazzled by Lake Garda that breathes the breath of the dolomites at an altitude of 2130 feet majestically watched over by Falcons The Vines grow on a deep slab of prune Stone and their roots are forced to dig deep among veins of fossil clay to gather life thus they come to offer a low yield of 60 quintils per hectare for the finest quality prune stone is also known locally as lessenia Stone referring to the nearby lassini mountains the stone was created in the Jurassic period 145 million years ago these rock formations were formed
by vast numbers of shellfish dying and sinking to the sea floor once they hit the sea floor they fossilized and turned into rock or prune Stone so the foundation of one of the world's most important wine regions was formed on the bed of prehistoric Rock and the history of the earth is buried under this Vineyard it's as if the vineyard forms the ceiling of the Earth's Museum prune Stone was used for making tools and building structures in prehistoric times and the Romans used it to build many structures and Pavements in Verona while it's technically not
marble that's exactly what it looks like today it's a secret ingredient in the Fine Wines of this region and it can't be duplicated anywhere in the world montesolane is embedded with prune Stone at one time millions of years ago there was a tectonic shift underground that forced the creation of mountains today it's a unique terrain that produces a unique wine a sea above the sea the vine Roots work hard to crawl deeper into the Earth and breaking these prune Stones extracting a treasure of minerality for the wine due to its location to Lake Garda montesolana
enjoys fresh air in the morning that Sparks vegetative growth and life in the vineyard while the cold Winds of the Alps protect the vineyard from parasites at night time keeping it healthy and ecologically in balance only the finest Corvina grapes are hand harvested and selected for this reposo crew the grapes are pressed the same day of harvest to capture their freshness fermented in steel Vats for about six months while they wait for the amarone promise after the amarone is made the reposo in the steel Vats go through a secondary fermentation on the amarone Palmas this
increases the intensity and richness of the aromatics and flavors and adds more structure this second pass over the amarone promise is called the repass or ripostle the wine then ages in French perique for about 20 months followed by at least three more years in the bottle in the estate Cellar until releasing to the public the total process is at least five years this is not only a high elevation single Vineyard crew of ripasso de la vapolicella but it's also a mono varietal wine of Corvina that passes through the wine has a dark and Brilliant ruby
red color with an intense Aroma reminiscent of ripe red fruits white pepper tobacco leaf and cocoa with a pleasant note of balsamic reduction and just a hint of Mediterranean herbs a warm and well-balanced Palette with a clean and dry finish just 19 000 bottles handcrafted annually depending on the Vintage and aging potential of 15 to 20 years [Music] is considered one of the world's greatest wines part of its secret recipe is a process called apacimento apacimento is the process of air drying The Grapes before fermentation its full velvety body with a long list of complex
flavor notes and aromatics and its ability to age for decades has become a coveted wine among collectors it's common speak in the wine world that amarone is a relatively newer wine that now has a place in the arena of grand wines like Bordeaux burgundy barolo and barbaresco some say because the wine was anointed with the docg classification the highest of the Italian wine disciplines in 2010. others say amarone was created by accident in 1936 considering the long and Rich wine history of the Valpolicella it seemed like a contradiction that amorone was a relatively new wine
compared to the other Titans of wine and in fact there are other contradictions surrounding this wine for example mean amarone comes from the Italian root word Amaro or bitter when you add the three-letter suffix o-n-e at the end of a word in the Italian language it makes the object bigger for example Libro or book in Italian is converted to librone with the suffix meaning big book or Porta for door in Italian is converted to portone or big door with the suffix so logically one would think that amarone means the big bitter wine but if you've
ever tasted a namarone before the last word anyone would use to describe this wine would be bitter it's anything but bitter foreign the first mention of amorone actually dates back again to the poet katulus around 55 BC born in Verona and who wrote about a wine in Latin as khaleesis amariores or bitter wine glasses fast forward to 493 A.D in a letter from Cassio Doris the minister of the king of the viscos requested wine made from dried grapes from the vapoleicella for a wedding the 1700s Francesco shipone mafe a writer from Verona writes about and
a model of a particular Grace in the LA policella The Story Goes that it was in 1936 when a seller manager named Adelino Lucchese finds a long forgotten barrel of ricotto that continued to ferment until it became amarone in fact when he found this wine he apparently said this is not a model it's an amarone he didn't mean that the wine was literally bitter according to our meaning of the word he meant that it was a bitter rachotto because it was dry and not sweet like should be so Senor Lucas gets credit for coining the
term amarone in the early 20th century what's a little misleading is when the wine intelligentzia claimed 1936 was the birth year of amarone due to an accident this is another contradiction it's hard to believe that 1936 was the first time a wine-making accident happened in the VA policela sweet wines were much more appreciated in ancient Rome until really the 20th century when dry wines became more desirable and I think what they call an accidental discovery it's really a moment of stylistic change in the wine World which we are moving away from sweet wines and moving
towards dry wines dry wines would have been considered bitter in ancient times and so amarone means the big dry wine foreign it might seem impossible but the Jeep took me off the beaten path in one of the world's most famous wine regions it was a long and curvy dirt road with no name a road you can't find on Google a road without a sign a road that led to one place we were on our way to the vineyard the ugolini family uses to make their amorone single Vineyard crew as the Jeep took us up higher
along the dirt road with no name I realized I'd never have gotten this far on foot why on Earth would anyone plant a Vineyard so hard to reach great wines come from great works in the vineyard but the location of a great Vineyard is just as important as the human hands that shape it I felt like I was on a Stairway to Heaven while the bottom of the vineyard impressed the eyes the top view impressed the heart [Music] [Music] they called The Vineyard valealta or High Valley it hangs on the Southeastern facing slope of the
valley at 840 feet above sea level the high elevation allows the grapes to undergo wide thermal excursions this is the difference between the high and low temperatures of the day and when the low and high of the day are drastically different say 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the day and 55 degrees at night this phenomenon promotes the production of aromatic qualities and polyphenols that produce complex flavors in the grapes soil is comprised of fossil moral that is millions of years old the steep slopes allow excess water to drain away from the vineyard forcing the Vine's roots
to climb deeper and deeper into the soils in search of water it's this struggle for sustenance that gives birth to complex wine grapes needed for an age-worthy wine and since the vines rest on such steep slopes the espalier system of Vine training is used to expose The Grapes to proper sunlight in various sections of the vineyard you'll find native grape varieties like Corvina corvinones the amaroni discipline requires 45 to 95 percent Corvina and or corvinone and five to thirty percent rondinella the minor aromatic varieties like Osceola cannot exceed 10 percent in the VA policella there
are many minor but native varieties that producers can choose from like oseleta molinara croatina ancelotta and others for Vale Alta amarone the ugolini family makes use of four native varieties Corvina Gentile or Corvina veronese which is the main grape of the blend and gives a generous amount of ripe red fruits with floral notes and a transparent red color Corvina grossa or corbinone provides a spicy character and an excellent contrast with the fruit forward Corvina Gentile rondinella gives another dimension of ripe fruit and herbal notes more acidity and a texture that's different from Corvina and oseleta
which adds pigment richness and structure thank you like all of ugolini's Vineyards the grapes are hand harvested and hand selected at the perfect moment of maturity at a very low 60 quintils per hectare which is half of the legal amount allowed to ensure the highest grade quality possible they're then placed in crates and transported back to the cellar [Music] The Grapes rest in these crates while undergoing a possimental which is the partial air drying of grapes this process will go on about six months until the grapes have lost 50 percent of their original weight a
possimento is an ancient tradition and known to intensify the flavors textures and aromatics in the wine at this point skilled workers and family members go through another hand selection process taking only the finest of the dried clusters and only those are used for making this amarone the grapes are then softly pressed and undergo fermentation since the sugar levels are high from the apacimento the amarone will arrive at a higher alcohol volume of around 16 on average while the amaroni discipline allows for up to nine grams of residual sugar in the wine the ugolini vale Alta
amarone is typically less than one gram which makes it a more traditional and classic dry style of amarone not easily found among today's International fruit bomb styles the wine ages in a combination of French Parikh and large Oak casks for 36 months and at least two years in the bottle before releasing to the public the ugolini family will age their amorone and other wines as long as it takes in the estate Cellar until the wines reach Optimum drinking performance they released their 2012 and 2011 vintages after the 2013 vintage for example at 9 and 10
years of seller aging respectively besides the single Vineyard crew system with traditional organic farming I found the ogallini philosophy of wine making 2 differentiate in terms of Aging they will age their amarone 7 to 10 years in the estate cellar if need be so that you don't have to age their Wines in your cellar the vale Alta amarone is capable of Aging 20 to 30 years depending on the Vintage the aromatics of this wine are seductive and are just as pleasing as the full-bodied and velvety textures that follow hints of red fruit jams and Verona
cherries and mixed dried fruits stand out with hints of sweet spices like tobacco coffee cocoa Licorice and Nutmeg the palate is graceful elegant and soft with a never-ending finish but at the same time dry the super ripe fruits on the front palate with the dry finish is what gives this wine its Eternal name amarone the VA policella is rich in history Ingenuity art and wine culture just like the Marone that protect its Priceless Landscapes the ugolini family has a mission to protect the traditions of the region in a profound way not just by making great
wine but by weaving wine with the creative works of humankind placing wine at the centerpiece of History so we can see what ancient people saw taste what they tasted and feel what they felt in this way we can share the Timeless ritual we call the celebration of life [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the valley of many sellers has attracted those who seek treasure through wine throughout the ages while its reputation will stir debate into the future the VA Police name is cemented into the stones of wine history forever
if wine is life then the vapolicella is the cosmos so Sip and you shall find I'm Tony margiata and I'll see you next time on the next episode of Italy's Best Kept wine secrets [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]
