Rubinelli Vajol, Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso

Today’s wine is one of the most resolutely Italian wines there is. I’m sure other vintners around the world make wines in the ripasso style, but for the most part, it’s a practice that belongs to Italy, and, more specifically, to the Valpolicella hills in the northeastern region of Veneto.Meaning “re-passed” in Italian, ripasso is when a finished wine is subjected to a second maceration on the skins and pulp of dried grapes. It grew out of another tradition unique to Valpolicella—the production of decadent, high-octane Amarone—and it’s the wine version of “using the whole animal.” Amarone is made from grapes that are dried for several months after harvest, and the skins and pulp of those ultra-concentrated grapes have a lot to give, even after the Amarone is finished fermenting; after they’ve ‘racked off’ the Amarone, many producers take a Valpolicella wine they made in the fall and put it in the tank with all the solids left over from the Amarone fermentation. The result is a velvety,