Monte dei Ragni· Valpolicella

Zeno Zignoli works four hectares high above the Valpolicella, between 350 and 450 metres on volcanic basalt and red clay, and he holds his Amarone back for a decade before release. That patience, on a property this small, is the whole reason I sought him out.

The Amarone is made the old way: a long appassimento, no new oak, nothing fined or filtered out. The current release I know carried a drying period of 120 days and arrived ten years on, still tannic, dried cherry, leather, tar, iron, a wine with one foot in another century. The Valpolicella Superiore is its opposite: no appassimento at all, fresh Corvina, red cherry and bitter almond, the bright Valpolicella far too few people make anymore.

Production is minuscule and the wines reward the cellar. This is Valpolicella for people who think they already know the appellation.