Alpha Zeta A Amarone della Valpolicella 2022
£27.95
The wine
Deep and intense on the nose, with dried cherries, plums, spiced autumn fruit compote and chocolate. Powerful on the palate, balancing ripe, silky tannins against concentrated, savoury cherry fruit, with a touch of woodsmoke on the long finish.
Amarone is made from grapes dried before pressing. These were picked in mid-September and left in ventilated lofts until the end of January, losing around 40% of their weight to evaporation, which concentrates everything left behind. Crushed in the depths of winter and fermented slowly at 18 to 22 degrees. The 2022 drought gave smaller bunches and lower yields, so the concentration starts in the vineyard.
The producer
Alpha Zeta
View all Alpha Zeta winesAlpha Zeta is a clever idea, beautifully executed. Founded in 1999 by the Master of Wine David Gleave and the acclaimed New Zealand winemaker Matt Thomson, the project set out to prove that the Veneto could deliver modern, characterful wines at genuinely everyday prices.
The approach is refreshingly direct. Rather than buying in finished wine, Alpha Zeta works hand in hand with growers in the hills around Verona, in the Valpantena and Alpone valleys, lowering yields and picking later for riper, cleaner fruit. Cool air spilling down from the foothills of the Dolomites keeps the grapes fresh and aromatic.
The name says it all. From A to Z, each wine is labelled by a single letter and made to show its grape and its place as clearly as possible: the crisp S Soave, the melon-scented C Chardonnay, the juicy V Valpolicella and the rich A Amarone at the summit. Most are sealed under screwcap to keep them bright and free of fault.
The result is a range that punches far above its price, fresh, honest and true to the Veneto. Proof that great everyday drinking and real quality need not be at odds.
