Ca’ La Bionda, Valpolicella Classico

I’ve said this before: Valpolicella wine has been a victim of its own success. The near-ubiquity of this classic red in Italian-American restaurants doomed it to be overlooked by “serious” wine drinkers, but if you’re still dismissing Valpolicella as “cheap and cheerful,” you’re not keeping up with the times.Much like France’s Beaujolais, Valpolicella is much more than the handful of behemoth brands that shaped everyone’s opinions for a generation. Cru Beaujolais is now a prestige destination, of course—a hotbed of innovation, youthful enthusiasm, and organic farming—and once people come to appreciate Valpolicella the terroir, not the “brand,” wines like Ca’ La Bionda’s pitch-perfect 2020 will get the respect they deserve. The $23 price tag on this bottle is completely divorced from the superb, nuanced wine inside—it’s inconceivable that so much wine can be had for so little money. The Castellani family of Ca’ La Bionda has been farming organically since 2000, and this wine displays th