2009 Garbole Hurlo, Rosso Veneto IGP · A Meta-Amarone from Val d'Illasi

Roughly 2,500 numbered bottles a year. Not made in every vintage.

Hurlo is made exactly like an Amarone and then deliberately refuses to be one. Ettore and Filippo Finetto use native Veronese grapes that the Amarone rules do not permit, so the wine goes out as Rosso Veneto IGP instead. They call it a meta-wine, a meta-Amarone. What it really is: an Amarone made by people who wanted to ignore the rulebook and were willing to pay for it in appellation status.

What makes it unusual

The grapes dry for 120 to 130 days in the fruttaio, in shallow four to five kilo crates, roughly double the drying time of a standard Amarone. The wine then spends a minimum of eighty-four months in new oak casks, American wood, plus at least a year in bottle before release. Seven years in new barrel would destroy most red wine. Fruit this concentrated absorbs it.

The blend is around half Corvina Veronese with four other native Veronese varieties, several of them close to extinct. Saccola, Pontedarola and Negrar have all been named among them. The Finettos deliberately do not publish the percentages, which they say is to keep their hands free from vintage to vintage.

In the glass

Impenetrable colour. Dried black cherry and plum, liquorice, cocoa, coffee and a balsamic, almost medicinal edge from the long wood. Full, warm and very long. This is an extreme wine and it is meant to be: a small pour after dinner rather than a bottle for the table.

The details

• Producer: Garbole, Tregnago, Val d'Illasi, Verona
• Appellation: Rosso Veneto IGP, declassified by choice
• Vintage: 2009
• Grapes: roughly 50% Corvina Veronese plus four other native Veronese varieties. Percentages withheld by the producer.
• Appassimento: 120 to 130 days in crates
• Ageing: minimum 84 months in new oak casks, then minimum 12 months in bottle
• Production: roughly 2,500 numbered bottles, each with a certificate of authenticity
• Format: 750ml

Serving and pairing

Decant two hours ahead and serve at 64°F. Braised short rib, game, aged Monte Veronese, or on its own after a meal. Do not chill it.

The producer

Garbole was founded in 1994 by the Finetto brothers, who were not from a wine family and taught themselves. The first fermentation happened in their grandmother's shed. They did not put a bottle on the market until 2001. They work in the Val d'Illasi in the eastern hills of Verona, cooler and drier than the Classico zone near the lake, and they make very little of anything.

Common questions

Why is an IGP wine priced like this?
Because IGP here is a choice, not a demotion. The production cost of 130 days of drying, seven years of new barrels and 2,500 bottles a year does not change because the label says Veneto instead of Valpolicella.

Has it won anything?
Luca Maroni named the 2011 Hurlo the best Italian red wine in his 2019 annual guide. That award belongs to the 2011, not to this bottle, and we would rather be precise about it than let the vintages blur.

Ships from our Florida cellar, cold-packed. Browse more from the Veneto.