Time is central to the story of Tommasi’s award-winning Amarone Riserva, De Buris. There are the months the grapes spend drying after harvest; the years the wine spends ageing in oak and bottle; and the decades the Tommasi family has spent caring for its vineyards in the Valpolicella Classica subzone. Yet the story of De Buris goes back even further.
Some 170 million years ago, shifting tectonic plates forged the layers of rock that would be shaped by glaciers and the Adige River to form the area’s complex soils. Today, a patchwork of clay, silt, sand and gravel underpins Tommasi’s La Groletta vineyard, the source of the grapes for De Buris. Perched 250m up the hillside overlooking Lake Garda and sheltered by the Lessini mountains, it is the ideal site for exceptional Amarone.
De Buris spends five years ageing in large Slavonian oak casks after 110 days of appassimento.
A wine worth the wait
First, grapes from selected parcels within this vineyard (under 2ha) undergo 110 days of appassimento, drying and concentrating their flavours. The wine then spends five years ageing in large Slavonian oak casks, followed by a further period of maturation in bottle.
The resulting wine explodes with personality. The ruby red of the 2011 vintage De Buris Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva DOCG reveals hints of garnet. On the nose, black cherry, plum and bitter almond are joined by tobacco, liquorice, cocoa and
