Ratings & Tasting notes:
95 points Falstaff
Brilliant, intense ruby-garnet with a light orange edge. Opens with notes of dried tomatoes, also dried plums, plus slight notes of iodine and tar. Radiant on the palate, lots of juicy fruit with a fine glaze, hearty, gripping tannins in many layers, lots of ripe plums and cherries, long finish.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Cavalliere G.B. Bertani founded the house in 1857 alongside his brother Gaetano, setting a benchmark for Veronese winemaking by pairing a deep reverence for local varieties with advanced Burgundian training. Bertani’s defining moment came with the launch of its Amarone Classico in 1958, establishing a historic, uncompromising style built for decades of cellaring. Operating out of the spectacular Villa Novare in Grezzana, the estate firmly rejects modern, jammy shortcuts, adhering strictly to the traditional appassimento method. The hand-harvested Corvina and Rondinella clusters are dried naturally on cane mats for up to four months before a slow winter fermentation and a massive, decade-long aging regimen in large Slavonian oak casks, yielding a wine of profound structural complexity and intellectual depth.
The 1997 growing season is universally enshrined as one of the greatest vintages of the 20th century in Veneto, yielding an Amarone of legendary status. A textbook spring gave way to an exceptionally hot, dry summer that allowed the grapes to achieve optimal sugar concentration and flawless phenolic maturity early in the cycle. Harvesting began under perfect autumn skies in September, with the fruit in immaculate, disease-free health—a critical factor for the impending appassimento phase. The subsequent winter drying process was favored by ideal cool, dry weather, concentrating the berries without unwanted rot. The resulting 1997 Amarone Classico is a monumental triumph for Bertani, marrying an intense, muscular core of dried plum, tobacco, and cocoa with the estate’s signature, vibrant acidity and aristocratic tannins built to evolve gracefully for over a half-century.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Excellent condition.
The bottle shown is one of the exact bottles being sold
