Corvina

Corvina is the principal grape of Valpolicella, north of Verona, and it is the clearest example in Italian wine of a single variety producing two completely different wines depending on what happens after the harvest.

Made conventionally, Corvina gives a light-to-medium red with sour cherry, redcurrant, a note of bitter almond and fresh acidity — the everyday Valpolicella that is drunk young and slightly cool, and which at its best is a genuinely charming wine.

The other route is appassimento. Bunches are laid on racks or in crates in drying lofts from the harvest until January or later, losing a third or more of their weight as water evaporates. The concentrated grapes are then fermented to dryness, producing Amarone della Valpolicella: deep, dense, sixteen or seventeen per cent alcohol, with dried cherry, fig, chocolate, tobacco and a characteristic bitter finish — amaro, from which the name comes. Stopped before dryness, the same fruit makes the sweet Recioto.

There is a third method, ripasso, in which finished Valpolicella is passed over the leftover Amarone skins for a second brief fermentation, gaining body and alcohol.

Corvina's thick skins and loose bunches are what make drying possible; tightly packed fruit would rot. It is blended with Corvinone, Rondinella and sometimes Molinara.

The grape has naturally high acidity and relatively low tannin, which is why even a wine of Amarone's weight retains a certain lift.

The appassimento process is more precarious than it sounds. Bunches spend three to four months drying, and any humidity spike can turn noble dehydration into destructive rot across an entire loft. Corvina's thick skins and loose bunch structure are what make it survivable; a tightly packed variety would be lost.

Amarone's rise has changed the region's economics considerably, and not entirely for the better. Because it commands far higher prices than ordinary Valpolicella, growers have every incentive to dry as much fruit as possible, and critics argue the appellation has expanded well beyond the hillside sites that justify the style.

Ripasso occupies the middle ground: finished Valpolicella re-fermented over the drained Amarone skins, picking up body, alcohol and some of the dried-fruit character. It was a thrifty traditional practice before it became a commercial category.