Valpolicella Ripasso
Classico Superiore
Grapes varieties:
35% Corvina
30% Corvinone
30% Rondinella
5% Molinara
Production area:
Hills near Negrar di Valpolicella
Altitude varies from 280 to 450 mt. a.s.l.
Vineyards exposition South-East and South-West
Age of the vines: from 5 to 50 years
Training systems: Pergola Veronese and Guyot (6000 vines per Hectare)
Winemaking process:
The grapes are picked and selected during the first and the second week of October. It’s immediately pressed and put in steel tanks where indigenous yeasts naturally start the fermentation after 24h.
For the next 15 days they’re kept with their skins and pumping-overs are performed. After the fermentation is completed, the wine is moved to a stainless-steel tank where it’s left for 6 months.
In April, after the Amarone is racked off, the Valpolicella Classico is put with the skins of Amarone where a second fermentation begins which will last 15 days. During this time several pumping-overs and skins submersions are performed until this second fermentation is also completed. The Ripasso is then moved to a steel tank where its gross lees is decanted off. After 10 days it is racked off in wooden barrels where the fermentation and aging are finished.
Aging:
24 months of aging
30% in 500 l tonneaux trice used
25% in 225 l barriques trice used
45% in 25 Hl barrels
Bottling:
The Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore “Cà del Laito” is bottled after 3 years of aging, and it stays 2 months in bottle before being sold.
The production amounts to about 40.000 bottles.
Serving temperature:
From 18° ai 20°C
From 64.5 to 68°F