If you’ve had good Amarone, you already know - there’s nothing quite like it. Mindblowing, generous, and mouthcoating with richness, it’s a treat that’s often priced upwards and over $100.

So how can you resist when it’s 98 Points and nearly HALF OFF?!

I’m bringing a bottle with me to Tahoe right now because there’s NO BETTER apres-ski treat to enjoy by a roaring fire. Trust your Agents on this.

Amarone, for those new to it, is a powerfully hedonistic wine from the Verona region in Northern Italy. It’s made from air-dried grapes, which basically wither down to raisins before fermentation. This process concentrates the extract inside berries and brings out all kinds of interesting phenolic compounds.

The result? A terrifically rich and seemingly sweet depth in the wine, while remaining dry as can be. Since the grapes lose so much volume, you get a lot less juice in the end, with a lot more effort (here’s a cool video on the process). For that reason, Amarone lives up to its reputation and its name, a play on the words amaro, as in bittersweet and amore, love. It routinely hits $100+ per bottle simply because it costs a fortune to make very little. We rarely see much in these parts, and this beauty is just hitting its stride.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate profiles them as “Luciano Arduini and his son Andrea run a vibrant boutique winery located between the stone-terraced hills of Corrubbio and Castelrotto. The Arduini family has taken great care to safeguard the traditions of Valpolicella. The estate has seven hectares of vine, some of which are planted with the characteristic pergoletta Veronese (overhead) training system commonly used in the steep terrains of Northern Italy.”

So, what’s it like? In a word, thrilling. Insanely rich, with layer upon layer of dried red fruit, particularly cherry and raspberry. And all sorts of secondary flavors of sweet teriyaki, baking spice, molasses, and fig jam. Jammy and hedonistic is the simple way to put it! The texture is all soft and velvety glycerine and the finish just never quits.

Think of the most intense old vine Zin you’ve had, with a little more spice, richness, and complexity and you get a fairly good idea of what’s going on here.

Really incredible to have enough to share, and we’re sure it won’t last long. Treat yourself while it’s here because there’s not much to go around.

98 Points – Luca Maroni

“Cherry, cranberry, plum and pomegranate nose, dried fruit flavors, spicy, firm tannins and a long finish. A lovely wine.”