Luigi Righetti Amarone Capitel del Roari 2023

Luigi Righetti has been making wine in the heart of Valpolicella since the early twentieth century, and Capitel del Roari is the house's flagship statement on what Amarone can be: generous and powerful, but never clumsy. The grapes are dried for several months using the traditional appassimento method before fermentation, concentrating fruit, structure, character - then the wine is matured in oak until it finds its poise. The result is a deep, warming red with ripe black cherry, dried fig, dark chocolate, and a seam of sweet spice running through the centre. What makes this stand apart from heavier, more extracted examples is its freshness. The tannins are silky rather than gripping, the finish is long and savoury rather than jammy, and there's a genuine sense of balance that makes it approachable now while leaving room to develop further in bottle.