Campagnola Valpolicella Ripasso 2023

Ripasso is Valpolicella that's been refermented on the leftover skins from Amarone — picking up more body, depth, spice. The bridge between Valpo and Amarone.

Campagnola grow this fruit on the hillsides of Marano di Valpolicella, in the heart of Valpolicella Classica. The vineyards sit between 200 and 350 metres, in calcareous soil that drains hard and keeps yields down. Corvina and Rondinella from those slopes carry the backbone that the ripasso process then builds on.

The base wine ferments in steel and cement through autumn, then rests until February. That's when it goes back onto the fresh skins left over from that year's Amarone and Recioto. After the second fermentation it spends a year in large Slavonian oak barrels, then a few more months resting in bottle before release.

Open it with anything off the grill or a plate of aged pecorino, and give it a decant if you have the time. It carries the weight for a Sunday roast and enough grip to sit through a long lunch.