Rubinelli Vajol, Valpolicella Classico

One thing we sommeliers are guilty of is restlessness: There’s always this insatiable need to find the shiniest, newest thing. In the world of Italian wine, with its endless supply of indigenous grape varieties, the opportunities for restless exploration abound. You’ll find today’s wine adventurers on the slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily, or the stone terraces of Valtellina, in Lombardy, but you won’t find many of them in Valpolicella, the wine epicenter of the Veneto—even though a classic Valpolicella red is perfectly suited to our current moment in wine.The wine-consuming public has embraced lighter-weight, lightly oaked (or unoaked) reds. Refreshing, unadorned wines are trendy, which is news that should be as welcome to producers of Valpolicella as it has been to producers of Cru Beaujolais. Valpolicella has its heyday a long time ago, and many Italian wine lovers moved on. But I’ve been drawn back by the stellar lineup of wines at Rubinelli Vajol, and especially by this pitch-perfec