Dal Forno Valpolicella Superior 2001
6 BOTTLES AVAILABLE.
Romano Dal Forno is a humble, down to earth and extremely passionate person. Just a few minutes with Dal Forno are enough to understand his unwavering, some might say obsessive, pursuit of quality. I have never met a producer with such a maniacal approach to cleanliness in the cellar. Nothing is wasted here. As I tasted the drying grapes after the 2006 harvest one grape fell to the ground, but it was swiftly picked up by Dal Forno. The same aesthetic applies to Dal Forno’s work in the vineyards. Dal Forno’s newest plot is planted with an extremely dense 12,800 vines per hectare and can only be described as a work of surgical precision. Dal Forno uses roughly 60-70% Corvina, 10-15% Croatina, 10-15% Rondinella and a small amount of Oseleta for the Valpolicella and Amarone. The fruit from the estate’s younger vines goes into the Valpolicella, while Amarone is made from vineyards that range from 10 to 30 years of age. Antonio Galloni Wine Advocate # 173 Oct 2007
Romano Dal Forno is Veneto's 'Grape King' and also one of the kings of Amarone, Italy's great 'Monster' wine. This bold statement ignites the debate: Dal Forno or Quintarelli, who makes the better wine? Both produce world-class cellar wines, and at this level it’s a taster’s preference: do you like Dal Forno’s modern, hedonistic expression of the ancient grapes or the austere, rustic style of sire Guiseppe Quintarelli? The one sure thing is that these two are in a superior class all to themselves. Both produce "revelation" wines – the kind that will change how you look beneath the colors in a glass.
The great richness of Dal Forno's wines is derived from the extremely low yields of this artisan's 12.5-hectare estate outside the Classico zone. His dense, creamy Valpolicella is among the best of the Veneto, and his 'Nettare' is part of the comeback of garganega, the grape behind Soave that we find here formally dressed as a white passito dessert wine. In fact, all of his are "experience" wines, transporting you to a new level of wine appreciation. Sergio Esposito
Regrettably, this wine is both hard to find and priced in the stratosphere. However, anyone who has tasted a Dal Forno offering realizes this is the reference point for prodigious Valpolicella and Amarone. It possesses off the chart levels of complexity, richness, aging potential, and reveals a style totally unlike anything else produced in the region. Decent quantities are exported, although most stays in Italy to be gobbled up by the local cognoscenti and the country's finest restaurants. Robert Parker
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